European Midday Update: Markets Follow Wall Street Lower
LONDON -- The FTSE 100 was down 71.5 points at 6,301.9 and the Techmark index was 86.5 points lower at 3,738.8, with telecom shares particularly hard hit after AT&T (T) - Get Report said it has cut its sales and profits forecasts for 2000.
Vodafone AirTouch
(VOD) - Get Report
came under immediate selling pressure and was 6.5p lower at 282 ($4.45),
British Telecom
(BTY)
fell 27p to
11.45 and
Colt Telecom
(COLTY)
dipped 63p to
28.75.
Thus
shed 28.5p to 355 following its annual results. Brokerage
Credit Lyonnais
has turned positive on the stock following the figures, moving its recommendation from "reduce" to "add," but so far without effect.
Tech stocks, as usual, go with the Nasdaq flow. Those lower this morning included
Psion
, down 411p to
40.50,
Bookham Technology
, down 237p to
32.62, and
BATM Advanced Communications
, down 100p to
47.87.
Media stocks gave back Tuesday's gains, with
Pearson
down 71p at
22.63 and
Reuters
(RTRSY)
54p off at
11.46.
BSkyB
(BSY)
slipped 43p to
16.95.
Goldman Sachs
, in its latest review of the oil sector, upgraded
BP Amoco
(BPA)
, which rose 18.5p to 569. However, the bank downgraded
Shell
(SC) - Get Report
and
Lasmo
, the former falling 19p to 508 and the latter 3p to 105.
Europe's other bourses were in the red, with the
Xetra Dax
in Frankfurt down 81.74 at 7474.18 and the
CAC 40
in Paris 62.12 lower at 6500.29. The Neuer Markt's
Nemax All-Share
index was down 106.33 at 6601.00.
German technology stocks were mostly lower as investors turned to Old Economy issues.
Siemens
(SMWAY)
was down 3.62 euros to 165.40 ($150.25), software-maker
SAP
(SAP) - Get Report
fell 9.00 euros to 659.00 and
Epcos
(EPC) - Get Report
was off 1.70 euros at 153.50. The Neuer Markt-listed
T-Online
was down 2.70 euros at 45.30.
Industrial concern
Thyssen Krupp
rose 0.51 euros to 24.01 and carmakers
DaimlerChrysler
(DCX)
and
Volkswagen
(VLKAY)
rose 0.30 euros to 64.72 and 0.17 euros to 42.57, respectively.
Deutsche Telekom
(DT) - Get Report
fell 1.20 euros to 73.80 and
France Telecom
(FTE)
was 1.80 euros lower at 176.20, but
Telefonica
(TEF) - Get Report
was up 0.47 euros at 27.21.
