European share prices sank in early deals today, with investors rattled once again by Wall Street, where shares fell sharply on a raft of disappointing earnings reports and fresh accounting concerns.
Shares in troubled Swedish telecoms equipment group Ericsson led
the decline after its forthcoming issue of new shares, designed to shore up its balance sheet, was priced at an unexpectedly steep discount to the current share price.
Across the euro zone, the Euro Stoxx 50 index plunged 2.8 per cent to 2,769.7 points. Meanwhile, the British FTSE 100 index tumbled 2.6 per cent to 4,186.4, the French CAC 40 index fell 2.7 per cent to 3,420.1 points, and the German DAX 30 index dropped 2.2 per cent to 4,009.9 points. Earlier in Asia, Tokyo shares were down 2.8 per cent while the Hong Kong market declined 1.3 per cent. Those losses followed heavy falls on Wall Street yesterday, where shares were hit by disappointing earnings numbers from a number of leading companies, which encouraged profit taking.
A Washington Postreport that America Online may have boosted advertising revenue between 2000 and 2002 through a series of what the paper called "unconventional" deals was also said to have weighed on markets sensitive to any suspicion of irregular accounting practices following recent scandals. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6 per cent while the tech-rich Nasdaq composite index fell 2.9 per cent. AFP