Telecommunication stocks slithered to the bottom of the sector performance charts on a day when statements from industry fell some way short of the comfort zone.

Deutsche Telekom lost 3.5 per cent at #2,228 as disenchanted shareholders made their feelings plain at the group's annual meeting. The event was an unhappy reminder that Deutsche Telekom shares have halved during the past 12 months and that trading for the leading operators is not getting easier.

A cautious results statement from Vodafone, the UK mobile company, added to the downbeat mood and stocks fell across the board. France Telecom shed 3 per cent at #68.85, Telefonica 0.9 per cent at #17.79 and KPN 4.5 per cent at #12.23.

Volatility stayed hot at Alcatel, the telecoms equipment group, that is widely expected to unleash soon a mega-dollar takeover bid for Lucent Technologies of the US.

With 25.4 million shares changing hands, the shares fell 3 per cent to #30.85 after touching #33.89 early in the session. Alcatel stood above #72 at the start of the year.

The technology sector was out of sorts after Goldman Sachs cut earnings estimates for US network computer maker Sun Microsystems and EMC, the number one data-storage group. Earlier, Deutsche Bank's widely followed semiconductor analyst in Tokyo had downgraded 14 Japanese chip and chip-related stocks.

Among German tech groups, chipmaker Infineon dropped 5.1 per cent to #41, software group SAP lost 4 per cent to #172.05 and Siemens was 1.6 per cent lower at #88.65.

French chipmaker ST Microelectronics dropped 4.9 per cent to #45.02 as Deutsche Bank cut its earnings estimates by 8 per cent for the current year and 11 per cent for 2002, citing evidence of worsening pricing pressure in the semiconductor industry.

Semiconductor analyst Mr Ben Lynch expects the company to provide a sufficiently poor outlook at its annual investor field trip in New York on Friday to trigger broad earnings cuts among analysts.