General Elecric shares fell more than 3 per cent early yesterday as the US conglomerate hit quarterly earnings targets but fell $1 billion (€0.82 billion) short of expectations for top-line growth.

Jeff Immelt, chief executive, said the underlying business remained strong - attributing the weaker revenue figure to last - minute currency fluctuations, lumpy deal flow in its finance division and pricing discipline in plastics.

But the issue weakened otherwise solid earnings and reignited fears that GE would struggle to maintain growth in future.

The group's share price has underperformed the market for much of the past 18 months as big conglomerates prove out of favour with investors.

Yesterday's numbers did little to change sentiment as each layer of detail pointed to a different prognosis. Net earnings fell 46 per cent after a $2.7 billion bill for leaving the insurance industry, even though profits from continuing operations rose in line with analyst expectations.

Excluding the costly impact of its $7.6 billion insurance sale to Swiss Re, the US conglomerate made $5.8 billion, or 55 cents per share, in earnings from continuing operations in the fourth quarter of 2005 - up 1 per cent from a year earlier.

This figure too was depressed by one-off benefits included in results last year.