June 21, 2002	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 9, 1423

LONDON, June 20: Weaker European markets hovered near nine-month lows on Thursday, dragged down by technology and telecom shares as US stock index futures turned down amid doubts over the outlook for company earnings.

France Telecom and ARM Holdings led the fallers.

Dealers added that the spectre of a double-dip recession had reared its ugly head after recent soft economic data, citing bearish comments by influential economist Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley, and speculation that the next move in U.S. interest rates could be down not up.

The FTSE Eurotop 300 index of pan-European blue chips was 1.9 per cant weaker at 1,055 points, just eight points off last week’s trough its lowest level since late September.

The narrower DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index shed 2.41 per cent.

BT fell 3.3 per cent after Britain’s telecoms regulator said competitors to the former monopoly would be allowed to offer a full phone service, including line rental and calls, through a new wholesale access product.

In a note, Bear Stearns said the move could have negative implications for BT.

Nokia fell 3.7 per cent after the Finnish telecom equipment group lowered its forecast for second-half sales growth to up to 10 per cent from an earlier forecast of at least 15 per cent.

The stock earlier traded more than four per cent higher in a knee-jerk reaction to news the Finnish group remained comfortable with its earlier stated guidance for full-year pro-forma diluted earnings-per-share of 0.83 euros.

Staying in tech, chip makers and chip-related stocks were still spooked by Wednesday’s news US antitrust officials are investigating the $12 billion global memory chip industry.

German chip maker Infineon Technologies and British chip designer ARM fell 6.25 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively.

Weak British retail sales data, meanwhile, gave investors a reminder about the fragile state of the economic recovery in Europe at a time when policymakers are thought to be considering a rise in local interest rates.

British clothing retailers Next and Marks & Spencer fell by 3.1 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively.

Switzerland’s second-biggest bank Credit Suisse fell 1.7 per cent after it injected capital into its Winterthur insurance unit.

Credit Suisse said it was putting 600 million Swiss francs in fresh capital into Winterthur to reinforce its solvency margin, which had fallen due to negative financial markets and strong growth in its business.—Reuters