A sell-off in shares in the world biggest software company Microsoft sent a fresh wave of unease through the technology sector today and set the UK market off to a disappointing start to the week.
Shares in the group plunged on the New York market yesterday as fears mounted it would be broken up by US regulators.
The fears took their toll on the technology-dominated Nasdaq index last night,which knocked onto the UK technology shares this morning.
The FTSE-100 opened down 54.9 points at 6186.3.
Tech shares led the drops with Freeserve down 25p to 370p and Arm Holdings off 36p to 611p.
But the top flight index was not without gainers.
Gas group Centrica announced deals with Vodafone AirTouch, Kingston Communications and Cable & Wireless Communications to set up its own integrated telecoms services.
The move, which was outlined in principle in February, lit up Centrica’s shares 10p to 227p.
But the deals failed to help Vodafone AirTouch, which was caught up in the technology and telecoms falls and dropped 18p to 283.
Kingston was also off 3p to 700p and C&WC dipped 12p to 910p.
But a potential deal for online directories group Scoot.com helped its shares jump more than 7%.
The company, which confirmed it was in talks to buy classified newspaper group Loot, saw its shares rise 11p to 168p.
And building group Heywood Williams said it had a takeover approach at 300p a share. The group said the approach undervalued the company. Shares gained 50p to 261p.
PA News 25/04/00
