European equity markets endured a dismal session yesterday. Further selling in technology, media and telecoms (TMTs) kept the lid on morning activity, while the higher-than-expected US inflation data, which stoked interest rate fears, sent bourses lower still in the afternoon.
Frankfurt extended its losses as the day progressed, with the Xetra DAX index registering a fall of 234.23, or 3.1 per cent, to 7,214.83.
Deutsche Telekom was a big loser on the last day of the institutional offering for its Internet service business, T-Online. The shares fell €4.62 to €70.01, extending their loss since their high of March 6th to 33 per cent.
Elsewhere in the new economy sectors, SAP tumbled €27.60 to €600, Siemens lost €9.05 to €134.70 and Epcos dropped €9.71 to €116.10.
Financials enjoyed some brief respite after the government decided to ease corporate taxes in 2001 instead of 2002. But the sector later succumbed to the general market malaise and the shares closed lower.
Dresdner Bank lost 42 cents to €45.57 as the group said it would run its Kleinwort Benson business as a "virtual" investment bank - but it fell short of spinning it off into a legally separate entity.
Paris fell sharply, with the CAC-40 index closing at 6,065.71, a loss of 198.6. But traders expressed relief that the benchmark did not breach 6,000, as it had threatened to at one stage.
New economy stocks took the brunt of the sell-off. Technology services group Cap Gemini spent the day heavily in the red, ending €22.90, or 10 per cent, lower at €207.10, having peaked at €350 last month.
Amsterdam closed lower, with the AEX index down 9.72 at €650.54, a loss of 1.5 per cent on the day and 3.1 per cent on the week.
World Online continued to fall in spite of chairman Ms Nina Brink's departure, losing another 9.3 per cent to €17.10, having floated last month at €43.
Zurich was lower nearly across the board, and the SMI index finished 86.9 lower at 7,494.4.
Food group Nestle dropped 31 Swiss francs to SFr3,016 as investors registered disappointment that first-quarter real internal growth slowed to 3.8 per cent below the 4 per cent benchmark set by chief executive Mr Peter Brabeck.
