The technology and telecom sectors suffered downward pressure yesterday, with yet another US profit warning to digest.
Mobile phone maker Motorola said fourth-quarter sales and earnings would not meet expectations, in sharp contrast to the upbeat announcement from Nokia earlier this week.
Among rival handset makers, Sweden's Ericsson took the news hard, falling 4.8 per cent to SKr125.50.
Nokia dipped at first on bad news for the sector but its shares ended 4.3 per cent up at €56.40 as investors judged that Motorola may cede further market share to the world's mobile leader.
Mr Mark Davies Jones at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney said part of Nokia's success lay in better execution, such as the procurement of components on time.
But there was also a more fundamental cultural difference.
"Nokia starts its planning from what the consumer actually wants, while Ericsson and Motorola tend to be more engineering driven," he said.
Alcatel, maker of fixed-line telecom equipment, also seemed to take the Motorola news in its stride, rising 1.7 per cent to €72.10.
Chipmakers were mostly lower, with Deutsche Bank downgrading its earnings estimates on three leading European semiconductor related companies - Philips Electronics, STMicroelectronics and ASM Lithography. Philips fell 3.6 per cent to €43.36, STMicroelectronics 3.8 per cent to €53.35 and ASML 2 per cent to €14.65.
Deutsche Bank said Philips could be "increasingly exposed to a reversal in the cyclical upsurge" and expected a slowdown in the industry lasting two to three quarters.
Leading German chipmaker Infineon fell 0.7 per cent to €50.03 as Deutsche Bank said there would be no downgrade for the time being "but we see the risk of that increasing".
Bad news continued on Germany's Neuer Markt. Telecoms company Mobilcom fell more than 22 per cent to €33.51 as investors ignored assurances that it had secured funds for its third generation mobile phone project.
Mobilcom chief Mr Gerhard Schmid said he was considering quitting the Neuer Markt and moving to the mid-cap MDAX segment.
