Telcos suffer in Ericsson fallout

European markets dropped in early trading this morning. In London the FTSE 100 was down 0.5 per cent, with ARM holdings, Logica and Reuters leading the losers.

Vodafone and Marconi held their position as the most actively traded shares. The Techmark was down 0.1 per cent, with software maker Autonomy dropping 0.7 per cent after it signed a licensing deal with Imanage. This continues to be a turbulent year for telecoms stocks with Marconi and Siemens suffering the aftermath of Ericsson's Friday announcement. Ericsson was down 1.4 per cent with rival Nokia jumping 1.3 per cent in anticipation of tomorrow's fourth quarter earnings announcement. In Frankfurt the Dax fell 0.3 per cent, while in Paris the CAC dropped 0.2 per cent.