Eircom and its army of small shareholders must be wondering when the nightmare will end. Since hitting early highs, the price has fallen steadily.

Diminishing confidence in the sector as a whole has not helped but Eircom's under-performance against its sector even before its latest slump shows many of its problems are more local in nature.

These have been exacerbated by the uncertainty surrounding the sell-off of their interests by Eircom's original strategic partners - KPN of the Netherlands and Telia of Sweden.

News that they might dump 35 per cent of the company on the market before a 4 per cent bonus issue and in a poor climate generally for telecoms was enough to knock the stuffing out of the stock, which has since recorded a series of new lows.

The slump scared Telia, which decided to defer any selling plans, essentially to await a better price. This fed the uncertainty, damaging the price further.

Now the shares have fallen to €2.86, a far cry from the €3.90 launch price, to say nothing of their €5 high.

At this level, even KPN is balking at selling, as it would struggle to make any profit on its original investment. If confirmed, KPN's U-turn will further dim the hopes of the company and its legion of first-time stock market investors. Not only will that send the shares to new lows, it could endanger Government plans to sell off more of the State silver in the form of parts of Aer Lingus and Aer Rianta.