Technology stocks have hit their lowest level this year as the Nasdaq market in New York fell sharply once again on the back of more sales warnings from some industry blue-chips. Warnings on slowing fourth-quarter sales from two US industry leaders - semiconductor maker Altera and personal computer maker Gateway - knocked more than 5 per cent off Nasdaq at the open and the New York technology market remained weak throughout the day.
At the close, the Nasdaq had fallen 108.95 points to 2,597.98. Most European markets had closed earlier with heavy losses. Mainstream shares also suffered and the Dow Jones index of the leading 30 shares was down more than 2 per cent mainly due to the heavy falls suffered by Microsoft and Intel.
The news confirmed Wall Street's fears that a slowing US economy would bite into corporate earnings, further bruising a Nasdaq already reeling from four straight sessions of selling.
The biggest losers in Europe read like a who's-who of top tech names. Alcatel and Nokia shed 6.5 per cent and 3 per cent with Siemens and Ericsson following. France Telecom and British Telecom both set fresh year lows, as did British chipmaker ARM Holdings.
Irish technology shares were hit by a wave of selling. Baltimore fell 15 per cent in early trading to a low of £2.62 sterling (€4.28) before a modest recovery left the share at a 2000 closing low of £2.90, a fall of 28p on the day. Parthus fell 11p in London to £1.54 sterling, despite signing a licensing agreement with Nvidia Corporation that will see Parthus technology being used in Microsoft's Xbox gaming consoles.
On the Neuer Markt in Frankfurt, Trintech fell to a closing low of €8.09 (£6.37), a fall of €1.21 on the day.
Those losses were maintained on Wall Street where Baltimore, Parthus, Riverdeep, Iona and SmartForce were all down heavily. The exception was pharmaceuticals group Elan, which was trading almost $1 1/2 (€1.73) higher at $54 3/4 as the Irish market closed.
