BBC Wednesday, 4 April, 2001, 11:52 GMT 12:52 UK

European share slide halts

The global share turmoil continues in Europe European stock markets remained volatile at lunchtime on Wednesday.

In the first two hours of trading more than 2% was wiped off the main stock market indexes in London, Frankfurt and Paris, as they followed the heavy declines on Wall Street on Tuesday.

During the late morning, however, the markets staged a mini-rally to wipe out most of their losses.

The benchmark French Cac-40 index had pushed into positive territory mid-morning as badly hit shares from Tuesday, such as Alcatel, swung up. By 1150 GMT the index was up 0.5%.

London's FTSE 100 index had also regained nearly all its losses, while in Frankfurt the Dax was hovering 0.1% higher on the day.

The Techmark managed to hold onto some early gains, leaving it only 1% down by late morning.

New York losses

The technology hit came after the Nasdaq stock market, home to most of the big internet and telecoms-related firms in the US, lost about 6% of its value.

The Nasdaq had started the day at its lowest levels for 29 months.

At the close of trade in New York the Nasdaq index was down 110 points at 1,673. The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was also sharply lower, down 292 points to 9,485.

The fall in New York meant that most stock markets are now back at their lowest levels for two years or more, with the past two weeks of gains more or less wiped out.

A combination of reasons were given, including more tech worries following profits warnings from software firm Ariba and American Express on Monday, job cuts at Alcatel.

There was also the political tensions between the US and China and further signs of economic slowdown, with US factory orders slipping in March.

In Europe on Tuesday, the mood was bleak with London's benchmark FTSE 100 index ending nearly 3% lower at 5,463, its second lowest closing level for more than two years.

The Techmark 100 index, reflecting the value of the leading technology based firms, ended 8% lower at 1,771, easily its lowest level to date, and less than 30% its value of a year ago.

The French Cac 40 shares index and the German equivalent, the Dax, were both about 4% lower as the trading day ended.

Last quarter

The falls this week come on top of a torrid first quarter of 2001 ended with US share prices in the doldrums.

The Dow Jones index suffered its worst first-quarter performance since 1960, ending down 9% at 9,870 points since the beginning of the year.

The first-quarter picture for the Nasdaq index wasn't pretty either.

It closed at 1,839 points, 26% lower than where it started the year. It has lost more than two thirds of its value in the past year.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001