Britain's leading shares fell again today with depressed oil shares sapping the FTSE 100 and Cable & Wireless tumbling after warning on revenues, dealers said.
By 11.20 a.m. the benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 51.6 points or one per cent at 4,797.8. With US stock futures indicating a firmer start on Wall Street, dealers said the market could still bounce. The FTSE 100 is near three-year lows, having lost over 22 per cent since the start of the year.
As telecoms shares generally acted to brake a slide deeper into the red, British telecoms group Cable & Wireless's shares slumped to a nine-year low after it warned of falling revenues at its core Internet services business.
The company said in a long-awaited trading update that revenue in C&W Global, which accounts for the lion's share of total group turnover, was expected to fall five percent in the first and second halves of its current year.
In our view C&W needs to take decisive corporate action to restore confidence, said Prudential-Bache analysts in a note.
But others in the sector like Vodafone rose by over three per cent as investors jumped in and out of depressed telecom stocks in order to book profits.
British Telecommunications fell after the UK's telecommunications regulator Oftel said it would open directory services in the UK to competition, ending BT's near-monopoly of the area.
BT's shares sank four per cent to 382-1/4p.
From next year companies will be able to offer services including a single number for finding business numbers, services in a range of languages and call-completion facilities to connect people directly to the number requested.
Shares in telecoms equipment maker Marconi jumped after losing 12.5 per cent in the previous session. While rival Spirent gained 4.4 per cent aided by a broker upgrade.