European exchanges suffer as Nasdaq slips

Tech stocks in Europe fell on opening this morning after the US Nasdaq exchange lost five per cent of its value yesterday, falling 100 points to close at 2207.

By 09:00 (GMT) the TechMARK index was down more than one per cent. The fall in stocks on the London Stock Exchange was led by telecoms companies, many of which have suffered analyst downgrades recently. BT was off 3.2 per cent in early trading, Marconi down by 5.3 per cent, and Vodafone fell 2.3 per cent. However tech stocks as diverse as chipmaker ARM, security vendor Baltimore Technologies and systems integrator SEMA Group also suffered. Yesterday's fall on the Nasdaq brings its losses over the past year to almost 3,000 points, wiping 60 per cent off the value of the exchange. The Nasdaq was hit yesterday by more figures showing a contracting US economy and increasing uncertainty over whether Federal Reserve boss Alan Greenspan will cut interest rates before his schedule monthly meeting.