The highly-priced pharmaceuticals sector had another uncomfortable session in the aftermath of news that US drugs group Bristol Meyers Squibb had forecast a fall in 2002 earnings.

The announcement came hot on the heels of Tuesday's shock statement from Merck that it it saw only flat earnings growth next year.

The news sent the European pharmaceuticals sector down 1.46 per cent yesterday, extending the week's losses to 3.3 per cent. Among the losers, Germany's Altana fell 3.5 per cent to €52 while in Switzerland, Roche lost 2.4 per cent to SFr112.50 and Novartis was 1.6 per cent lower at SFr56.

Financials featured a sparkling market debut by Credit Agricole in Paris where the shares closed the day at €17.53, a 5.6 per cent premium to the offer price. The heavily-subscribed IPO from France's leading retail bank had been priced late on Thursday at the top end of its otherwise cut-price range.

Insurers, however, were broadly lower, feeling the impact of their exposure to weak equity markets, while Lehman Brothers downgraded a raft of companies. Among stocks it upgraded, German reinsurer Munich Re dipped 0.7 per cent to €290.03 and its peer Swiss Re eased 0.5 per cent to SFr165.50.

Technology shares wobbled as more results emerged from prominent US software groups Oracle and Adobe, following hard on the heels of Lucent and Ciena the day before. However, after several days of profit-taking, the falls were more limited yesterday. Germany's SAP, a competitor to Oracle, fell 0.9 per cent to €141 and in France, Dassault Systemes fell 2.5 per cent to €51.50.

On the wider electronics front, Dutch group Philips pared its losses by the end of the session, closing 1 per cent lower at €30.75, and Siemens fell 1.5 per cent to €67.46.

The biggest tech faller was Alcatel, the French telecoms equipment maker. It closed 4.9 per cent lower at 18.74. Nokia and Ericsson were both down about 1 per cent.