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European Closing Update: Markets Follow Wall Street Lower

European Closing Update: Markets Follow Wall Street Lower

Tech stocks bear brunt of selling.
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Tech stocks bear brunt of selling.

LONDON -- European tech stocks got mauled today. In London, the FTSE 100 ended with a loss of 9.9 points, or 0.2%, at 6,035.5, but the Techmark was truly slammed by the nightmare on Wall Street and the index slid a further 4.1% to 2,925.6, a loss of 125.6 points.

The one bright note was that some safe-haven stocks managed to gather a few buyers away from the tech stocks, but it was not enough to keep the blue-chip index in the plus column.

Among the gainers were financial stocks such as

Barclays

(BCS) - Get Free Report

up 48p, or 3.1%, at

16.22 ($24.00),

Lloyds TSB

up 11.5p, or 1.8%, to 656 and takeover favorite

Abbey National

up 29p, or 3.7%, to 814.

Media stocks featured as one the disaster sectors of the day.

Pearson

fell 85p, or 4.5%, to

17.99,

Reuters

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shed 56p, or 5.5%, to 959, and

BSkyB

(BSY) - Get Free Report

slumped 73p, or 6.9%, to 980.

In tech stocks, last week's high flyer

Bookham Technology

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became this week's crash lander with a loss of 640p, or 18.0% to

29.25, while

BATM Advanced Communications

slid 562p, or 15.4% to

30.87.

Freeserve

(FREE) - Get Free Report

, firmer initially on bid speculation from cable company

NTL

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, ran back in the absence of any developments to close 14p lower, or 3.6%, at 374.

Europe's other bourses ended lower. The

Xetra Dax

in Frankfurt closed down 76.07, or 1.1%, at 6912.96 and the

CAC 40

in Paris ended 101.88 lower, or 1.6%, at 6094.17. The Neuer Markt's tech-heavy

Nemax 50

index finished down a whopping 475.43, or 7.3%, at 6014.29.

German technology shares apparently had no choice but to follow the Nasdaq lower, with

Epcos

(EPC) - Get Free Report

dropping 10.25 euros, or 7.5%, to 126.75 ($113.58), ISP

T-Online

off 1.60 euros, or 4.3%, at 35.50 and software maker

SAP

(SAP) - Get Free Report

down 15.40 euros, or 2.8%, at 534.60.

Automakers in Frankfurt were able to buck the downward trend, with

DaimlerChrysler

(DCX)

up 0.61 euros, or 1%, to 60.91 and

Volkswagen

(VLKAY)

0.38 euros higher, or 0.9%, at 44.68.

Deutsche Telekom

(DT) - Get Free Report

ended up 0.35 euros, or 0.6%, at 56.73, after the government said it would float less of its shares than previously thought this summer.

Telefonica

(TEF) - Get Free Report

fell 1.11 euros, or 5.1%, to 20.56 and

France Telecom

(FTE)

ended down 5.30 euros, or 3.9%, at 132.50.