The technology sector showed it was still vulnerable to poor news in spite of the seemingly endless series of previous disappointments. The headline name making a downgrade of forecasts yesterday was Juniper, a rival in the US to networking company Cisco.

Juniper warned that earnings for the fourth quarter would be 50 per cent below expectations.

The picture was repeated in Europe, where Highwave Optical, the French optical components maker, cut forecasts for sales and profits this year. Highwave has been hit by cuts in orders from telecom service providers as they struggle to cope with overburdened balance sheets. Its shares, down more than 95 per cent this year, yesterday lost another 41 cents to €3.43, a fall of 10.7 per cent.

Of the blue-chip techs, Alcatel led the retreat, with a fall of 5.8 per cent to €18. A falling Nasdaq pushed most tech shares further downwards in afternoon trade. Chipmakers STMicroelectronics and Infineon were down 5 per cent and 4.5 per cent respectively.

Media stocks followed the techs lower. Publicis, the French advertising group which has ridden out the downturn better than many of its peers, yesterday said it was sticking with its targets for 2001. Publicis shares, which doubled over the two-month period from early October, were yesterday 2.7 per cent lower at €28.50. Its French rival, Havas, was down 4.2 per cent to €7.90.

European media leader Vivendi Universal was off 1.3 per cent to €58.25 as it continued its busy month of deals.

Luxury goods stocks handed back some of their recent gains, after being hit by recent bearish broker comment, the weak yen and a profits warning late on Wednesday from US cosmetics leader EstΘe Lauder. Richemont was the heaviest faller in the sector, sliding 2 per cent to 30.50 Swiss francs. LVMH came off 1.3 per cent at €44.25. L'Oreal shed 1.4 per cent at €76.60.

FLS, which issued a profits warning in November and has been something of an unfortunate investment for Potagua, jumped 17.6 per cent to 70 Danish kroner.