European Midday Update: Markets Only Slightly Lower, as if Nothing Happened
LONDON -- The FTSE 100 staged a reasonable rally above 6000 Tuesday morning, but it would take some really serious buying to see it back to the levels of last week. Some of the major players have already set down their tools ahead of the Easter break, and as a result the recovery doesn't seem to have much oomph about it.
By midmorning, the Footsie was 4.6 points higher to 5999.2, having been 85 points up after just a quarter of an hour's trading. The
Techmark
index was up 154.5 points, or 4.6%, to 3543.2.
The morning's major faller was
BP Amoco
(BPA)
, which fell 21p to 506 (US$8.00) mainly on technical considerations following the removal of
Atlantic Richfield
(ARC) - Get ARC Document Solutions, Inc. Report
, recently acquired by the company, from the
Standard & Poor's
index in the U.S. U.S. funds were forced to sell their Arco holdings, which resulted in pressure being exerted on the BP Amoco price as new shares issued in connection with the acquisition were listed in New York and London. Dealers expect BP Amoco to recover from this fall Tuesday as index tracking funds increase their weighting in BP Amoco to 8.7% of the FTSE 100 from 7.5% previously.
For investors who were brave Monday and retained their technology stock holdings, there was better news Tuesday morning following the
Nasdaq
rally overnight. Best of the bunch was
TheStreet Recommends
Baltimore Technologies
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, which rose 620p to
64.50. These shares have fallen 60% since March 10, so they're due for a bounce.
ARM Holdings
(ARMHY)
was 297p higher to
33.65 and
Psion
improved 223p to
30.00.
HSBC
(HBC)
rose 5.5p to 699 on news that the company is teaming up with
Merrill Lynch
(MER)
to form the first "global" (well, it won't include the U.S.) online banking and investment service.
Prudential plc
responded to good first-quarter business figures with a gain of 11p to 899 before slipping back to stand just a penny dearer at 869.
Vodafone AirTouch
(VOD) - Get Vodafone Group Plc Report
was back in demand after news that its
Mannesmann
subsidiary has sold just over half its holding in
Atecs Mannesmann Engineering
to
Siemens
(SMAWY)
and
Bosch
. Vodafone rose above 300 before coming off slightly to stand 13p higher at 298. At least four leading broking houses are recommending clients buy Vodafone this morning.
QXL.com
(QXLC)
gained 25p to 262, boosted by a partnership deal with
British Telecom's
(BTY)
mobile unit BT Cellnet, whereby both sets of customers can bid for items on WAP mobile phones though BT's Genie mobile portal.
On the Continent, it seemed almost like the last two sessions had never happened, with tech and telecom shares once again the flavor of the day. The
Xetra Dax
in Frankfurt was slightly down 30.48 to 7156.66 and the
CAC 40
in Paris was down 38.08 to 6022.46.
Gains for technology issues in Frankfurt were just enough to offset slumping Old Economy shares, as software maker
SAP
(SAP) - Get SAP SE Report
was up 18.50 euros to 654.50 (US$623.28), Siemens was 3.39 euros higher to 144.90 and
Epcos
(EPC) - Get Edgewell Personal Care Co. Report
soared 3.85 euros to 128.10.
Deutsche Telekom's
(DT) - Get Dynatrace, Inc. Report
Internet unit
T-Online
continued to make solid gains following its debut Monday. T-Online was up 2 euros to 39.60.
Deutsche Telekom itself wasn't having a bad session either, and was up 3.80 euros to 74.80. Other European telcos also were higher, with
France Telecom
(FTE)
up 4.60 euros to 160.60 and
Telefonica
(TEF) - Get Telefónica SA Report
up 0.42 euro to 24.22.
