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Tech losses in Europe
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August 6, 2001: 12:01 p.m. ET
Mixed day for region's bourses as jitters grip chip and tech stocks
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LONDON (CNN) - Technology stocks in Europe slipped on Monday, undermined by a weak start on the U.S. Nasdaq index amid new worries about the chip industry.
Software, semiconductor and telecom-related shares were among the region's biggest fallers, although pockets of positive corporate news offset the tech sector blues, leading to a mixed picture among key stock indices.
London's FTSE 100 shed 0.4 percent to end at 5,526.4, dipping back into loss after showing a profit earlier. Colt Telecom, a provider of business phone services, slid 15 percent after warning of worsening cash outflows.
In Paris, the blue-chip CAC 40 index rose 0.7 percent to close at 5,066.25, and Frankfurt's electronically traded Xetra Dax gained 0.2 percent to reach 5,747.26 in late trading.
On Wall Street, shares of high-tech shares headed south at the start of Monday's session after an analyst forecast that a price war would this month force Intel (INTC: Research, Estimates), the world's No. 1 semiconductor maker, to slash prices of its highest-powered chips by 50 percent.
The prediction, by an industry analyst at investment bank Lehman Brothers, triggered alarm among holders of chip-related and other technology shares in the U.S. In the first 40 minutes of trading, the Nasdaq composite index slipped 1 percent to 2,043.32, while the Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 76 points to 10,437.
Spreading across the Atlantic, the sell-off pulled down telecom equipment firms in London such as Spirent (SPT), which lost 3.4 percent, and Marconi (MONI), down 3.2 percent. Computer consultant CMG (CMG) and software company Dimension Data (DDT), about to drop out of the FTSE 100 index, each lost 4.4 percent.
But the biggest losers on the FTSE were two aspiring telecom services companies. Colt Telecom Group (CTM) crashed 15 percent after it forecast increasing cash outflows to finance further network construction, but failed to spell out its financing plans in any more detail. Energis (EGS), a carrier of Internet data, dropped 5.2 percent.
In Frankfurt, electronic components maker Epcos (FEPC) edged 1.4 percent lower, while technology and engineering conglomerate Siemens (FSIE), the owner of the majority of Epcos, was down 0.7 percent in late trading.
And among Dutch technology shares, semiconductor equipment maker ASM Lithography fell 2.5 percent, and Philips Electronics, a leading European consumer electronics supplier, lost 2.3 percent.
Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile-phone handsets, fell 2.4 percent in Helsinki. By last Friday's close, its shares had climbed more than 24 percent since it published an encouraging report on second-quarter profit on July 19.
Leading European telecom service companies had mixed fortunes. British Telecommunications (BT-A) fell 2.7 percent after reports that Britain's second-biggest phone company had received an £18 billion ($25.7 billion) offer for its fixed-line business. Some analysts, though, put valuations of as much as £21 billion on the business and said BT should not sell the unit.
By contrast, the former state-owned telephone companies in Germany and France enjoyed strong gains. Deutsche Telekom (FDTE) rose 1.8 percent after analysts at Deutsche Bank reiterated their "buy" recommendation on the stock, estimating the price could reach  31 by the end of 2001 from 24 now.
The company's French counterpart, France Telecom (PFTE), climbed 3.6 percent in Paris, pulling the CAC 40 into positive territory. The index got more support from computer services company CAP Gemini Ernst & Young (PCAP), up 1.8 percent after analysts at UBS Warburg called the stock one of their top tips in the technology sector.
HSBC Holdings (HSBA), Britain's largest bank and the FTSE index's fourth-biggest company by market value, was the leading gainer on London's main index. The shares rose 3.3 percent after HSBC posted a 4 percent rise in net profit but made cautious comments about the likely effect of an economic slowdown.
In Amsterdam the AEX index climbed 0.2 percent, while the SMI in Zurich edged up 0.3 percent and Milan's MIB30 index gained 1 percent.
The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300, a broader index of the region's largest stocks, ended the session virtually unchanged from Friday's close, although its information technology segment closed almost 2 percent down. 
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