Trading among leading London shares got off to an erratic start with low volumes prompting some volatile share price movements.
Telecom stocks managed to ring up some interest after mobile phone giant Vodafone AirTouch unleashed its hostile bid for Germany’s Mannesmann.
Vodafone released its official offer document for Mannesmann but did notchange its original bid which offers 53.7 of its shares for each Mannesmann stock.
While the news pushed Vodafone’s shares down slightly by to 296p,other telecom stocks managed to post some gains.
BT rose 20p to £14.42, Cable & Wireless jumped 10p to 845p, Colt Telecom added 54p to £30.72 and Orange put on 11p to £21.20.
The FTSE-100 Index found some support from a rise on Wall Street overnight and stood up 32.8 points at 6761.4 by 9am.
Trading was expected to remain thin during the day, with little exciting economic or corporate news expected.
But electricity companies found themselves in the spotlight after industry watchdog Ofgem said it was to make seven companies, including National Power and PowerGen, insert “good market behaviour” conditions into their licences.
The move follows a probe into how seven of Britain’s main electricity companies artificially inflated their prices for two weeks in July this year. Ofgem hopes the new licence conditions will end such practices.
National Power fell 4p to 370}p and PowerGen lost 3p to 455p.
EGi News 23/12/99