European Closing Update: Lower as Markets Take Cue from Wall Street

Telecom stocks remain friendless in Europe.

Author:: TSC Staff
Publish date:: May 9, 2000 1:09 PM EDT

LONDON -- London took its lead from Wall Street, resulting in a sad session where buyers were on strike and market makers spent the day making down prices. There was some selling, but the volume was so weak that even a minor trade was enough to move a price significantly.

The

FTSE 100

closed 92.5 points lower, or 1.5%, at 6,123.8 and the

Techmark

shed 99.0 points, or 2.7%, to 3,634.8.

Telecom stocks were the saddest sector of the day. The high cost of third-generation mobile phone licenses, fresh competition worries and continued gloom over the collapse in the KPN-Telefonica merger talks were enough to knock another 15p, or 5.6%, off

Vodafone AirTouch

(VOD) - Get Report

to 252 ($3.86).

British Telecom

(BTY)

surrendered 43p, or 4.3%, to 957 and

Colt Telecom

(COLTY)

fell 149p, or 5.3%, to

26.40.

BP Amoco

(BPA)

ended the session 19.5p lower, or 3.3%, at 577.5, with investors struggling to find anything in the latest quarterly earnings to get excited about, although most analysts seemed happy with the figures.

Shell

(SC) - Get Report

was left slightly better placed at 538, up just a penny.

In tech stocks, the list of winners in the sector was short. The losers were headed by

Bookham Technology

(BKHM)

, down 525p, or 13.2%, to

34.62, and

BATM Advanced Communications

slid 402p, or 8.7%, to

42.50.

Baltimore Technologies

(BALT)

, despite promising revenue numbers for the first quarter, settled 333p lower, or 4.8%,

66.36.

Media stocks were a mixed bag, with

Pearson

up 79p, or 3.7%, to

22.04, but

Reuters

(RTRSY)

down 76p, or 6.6%, to

10.76.

BSkyB

(BSY)

tumbled 123p, or 7.5%, to

15.12, as

Lehman Brothers

lowered its price target for next year to

13.00.

Most of Europe's continental stock markets also finished lower. The

Xetra Dax

in Frankfurt closed down 127.55, or 1.7%, at 7280.54 and the

CAC 40

in Paris ended 144.81 lower, or 2.2%, at 6369.61. The Neuer Markt's

Nemax All-Share

index finished down 122.03, or 1.9%, at 6400.62.

In Frankfurt,

Epcos

(EPC) - Get Report

ended off 5.30 euros, or 3.6%, at 143.20 ($128.63),

Siemens

(SMWAY)

closed down 6.32 euros, or 3.8%, at 160.00 and software maker

SAP

(SAP) - Get Report

finished 21.68 euros lower, or 3.3%, at 631.50.

Telecoms remained a focus around Europe after Japan's

NTT Docomo

announced it would take a 15% stake in Dutch telco

KPN's

(KPN)

mobile unit for 5 billion euros. KPN finished down 8.20 euros, or 6.9%, at 111.30 as some investors felt the price too low and they are still smarting over the company's failed merger attempt with

Telefonica

(TEF) - Get Report

Elsewhere,

Deutsche Telekom

(DT) - Get Report

closed down 4.50 euros, or 6.7%, at 62.50 and

France Telecom

(FTE)

ended 11.50 euros lower, or 7%, at 152.00.

German automaker

BMW

surged 1.51 euros, or 4.6%, to 34.25 after securing an agreement to offload its troubled Rover unit.