France Telecom plumbed fresh depths as the countdown to the flotation of Orange, its mobile phone offshoot, began in earnest. Trading in Orange shares opens today and late yesterday the broad market betting was for the issue to be priced towards the lower end of the indicated price range of €9.50-€11. "They are clearly not finding it easy to get this one away. Everyone's being very tight-lipped. But the best guess is that the price will be €10," said one broker.

The flotation is a key to France Telecom's debt reduction plans. Its shares ended up 1.1 per cent at €84 after hitting a 16-month low of €80.75 earlier in the session.

Deutsche Telekom rallied, rebounding from Friday's 4.5 per cent shakeout, on news that the German giant was sweetening the terms of its acquisition of VoiceStream for US shareholders. The stock rose 2.2 per cent to €31.99. Dutch leader KPN gained 2.6 per cent to €14.25.

Deutsche Post was little changed ahead of today's meeting of the Deutsche Borse index committee which is widely expected to vote in favour of the shares joining the benchmark Xetra Dax index. The shares eased 0.1 per cent to €23.55.

Renault kept its nerve in advance of today's results statement. The shares have been a steady performer in the run-up to the numbers amid expectations that the news from Japanese partner Nissan Motor will be positive but that the outlook for Renault's core European business could be bearish. The stock added 0.4 per cent at €55.70.

Thomson Multimedia rose 1 per cent to €50 as the French consumer electronics and media group beat forecasts with a 70 per cent rise in 2000 net profits. The company also raised expectations for this year's results by playing down the impact of a slowing US economy.

Norwegian jobs agency Stepstone fell to a record low as a result of Friday's upbeat results from local rival Jobline. The shares, floated last March at 62 kroner, fell 5.4 per cent.