European Closing Update: A Bitter End to the Week

Whatever type of investor you are -- old or new -- it was a bad day.

Author:: TSC Staff
Publish date:: May 19, 2000 12:49 PM EDT

LONDON -- It didn't matter whether you were a high tech or a smokestack investor on Friday. While the two sectors went their different ways on Thursday, there was no doubt about Friday's direction -- down.

The

FTSE 100

ended with a loss of 187.5 points, or 3.0%, at 6,045.4, its lowest level ina month, while the

Techmark

staged an even more dramatic decline, sliding 291.9 points, or 8.7% to 3,052.1, its worst level since October last year.

The day didn't really get off to the best of starts as two profit-warnings set the ball rolling. The companies in question were

Parity Group

, which fell 47p, or 22% to 162 ($2.40) and

MSW Technology

, which ended 18p, or 37% lower at 30.5.

In other techs,

CMG

collapsed 492p, or 12.3%, to

35.21,

Logica

dived 249p, or 15.1%, to

14.06,

Psion

fell 99p, or 15.0%, to 562, and

Baltimore Technologies

(BALT)

retreated 70p, or 9.2%, to 419.

Media stocks suffered the same treatment.

Pearson

fell 239p, or 11.3%, to

18.84, and

Reuters

(RTRSY)

closed 70p lower, or 6.5%, at

10.15.

In the telecom sector,

Vodafone AirTouch

(VOD) - Get Report

was down 23p, or 8.6%, at 242.5, and

Colt Telecom

(COLTY)

fell 137p, or 6.7%, to

19.12.

British Telecom

(BTY)

continued to suffer in the wake of a poor response to recent earnings figures, and shed another 41p, or 4.5%, to 881.

Marconi

provided full-year earnings on Friday, and while the numbers were not all that bad, the stock suffered as a result of three key factors, the wrong sector, the wrong day and a solid rise in the share price in the past month. The price collapsed 111.5p, or 12.7% to 765.5.

A rare bright spot was

Burmah Castrol

, which registered a gain of 36p, or 2.2%, to

16.46 after the bid from

BP Amoco

(BPA)

received full EC regulatory approval. BP Amoco tried its best to rally, but was left nursing a loss of 4p, or 0.7%, at 609.

It was a miserable end to the week on the Continent as well, with much of the blame placed squarely on the shoulders of the tech and telecom sectors. The

Xetra Dax

in Frankfurt ended down 192, or 2.7%, at 6989 and the

CAC 40

in Paris finished 256 lower, or 4.0%, at 6196. The

Neuer Markt's Nemax 50

index ended down 284, or 4.7%, at 5784.9.

Like their British counterparts, European telcos were hammered regardless of nationality.

Deutsche Telekom

(DT) - Get Report

fell 4.01 euros, or 6.7%, to 56.25 ($50.63),

Telefonica

(TEF) - Get Report