Telecommunications shares put in a strong performance, with the sector up more than 6 per cent. Some of the uplift was attributed by analysts to a statement by the Spanish bank BSCH that it was not planning to sell its stake in Vodafone, which eased investor fears about other stock overhang, such as at Deutsche Telekom.
However, KPN Telecom later in the day announced that it had sold its own stake in Vodafone - 220 million shares - for €572 million. KPN received the shares when it sold its stake in Ireland's mobile phone company Eircell.
KPN did not say when it sold the stake, but the lock-up period ended on June 12th. KPN rose 8.2 per cent to €6.45.
Deutsche Telekom rose 5.9 per cent to €25.62 as concerns eased about share flowback after its take-over of VoiceStream of the US. France Telecom rose 6.25 per cent to €55.25.
Poland's Elektrim chose Vivendi rather than Deutsche Telekom to run its telecoms business in a $600 million (€795 million) deal. Its shares rose 1.2 per cent to 25.40 zlotys (€7.54) while Vivendi rose 1.2 per cent to €64.95.
Nokia announced 1,000 job cuts at its networks unit, about 4 per cent of the 23,000 total at this offshoot. The shares slipped 0.6 per cent to €25.40.
Its Scandinavian rival Ericsson rose 6.4 per cent to €58.50 after winning more work on supplying third generation mobile technology. Ericsson has signed a letter of intent with Italy's H3G, part of Hutchison Whampoa, which holds one of the four Italian 3G licences.
