European Midday Update: Markets Mixed After TMT Surge

LONDON -- Technology, media and telecom stocks were the early morning darlings of Europe's stock markets following last night's sparkling Wall Street performance.

The FTSE 100 was 60.3 points higher in early trading but by midmorning the index had lost some of its strength and was lately down 4 to 6355.6.

"The market ran up too far too quickly," commented a senior trader. "The initial markup frightened off the buyers, and there's been some profit-taking."

Not in the techs though -- the Techmark extended its gain 108 points to 3251.9.

Vodafone AirTouch (VOD Quote) held center stage, the shares rising 12p to 314 before settling 2p higher at 304 ($4.68) after Tuesday's sale of Orange to France Telecom (FTE Quote) and its top-of-the-range results. Volume in Vodafone was already a hefty 73 million shares.

British Telecom (BTY Quote) added 16p to 985 before slipping back to stand 4 cheaper on balance at 965, while Colt Telecom (COLTY Quote) lost an initial 184p rise and is now unchanged at 23.40.

Freeserve (FREE Quote) jumped a further 56p to 544 on parent Dixons'(DXNGY Quote) plan to auction its 80% stake. Dixons is said to want in excess of 600p per share for its stake, so there could be more mileage in Freeserve, and Dixons too. The latter is 33p to the good at 354.

Baltimore Technologies (BALT Quote) attracted fresh support after Tuesday's move to merge its two Japanese subsidiaries and moved up 44p more to 462. ARM Holdings (ARMHY Quote) moved up 5.5p to 579 and Psion added 34p to stand at 592.

Invensys put out good earnings figures, but the market ignored these, preferring to concentrate on the company's offer for ailing Dutch software company Baan (BAANF Quote). Invensys fell 17.5p to 248, while Baan rose 0.45 euro to 3.05.

Europe's other stock markets were also higher on a tech rally. The Xetra Dax in Frankfurt was up 10.9 to 7130.2 and the CAC 40 in Paris was 50.7 higher to 6376.2. The Neuer Markt's tech-heavy Nemax 50 index was up 195.5 to 6144.1.

In Frankfurt, blue-chip techs led the Dax higher, with Siemens (SMAWY Quote) up 1.24 euros to 156.80 ($145.75), Epcos (EPC Quote) 3.40 euros higher to 130.75 and software maker SAP (SAP Quote) up 21.00 euros at 572.00.

Dresdner Bank (DRSDY Quote) was down 0.25 euro to 43.65, erasing early gains made amid reports it was seeking greater cooperation with BNP Paribas, which was up 0.45 euro to 96.00.

Major European telecoms were also higher, as Telefonica (TEF Quote) climbed 0.68 euro to 22.33 and France Telecom (FTE Quote) rose 3.10 euros to 152.00. Deutsche Telekom (DT Quote) rose 1.11 euros to 66.11.