Shares in Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, fell six per cent today on the London stock exchange as rumours of a profit warning resurfaced and a major investment bank downgraded the Finnish company.
Nokia chief spokesman Mr Lauri Kivinen declined to comment on the speculation or the Lehman report, which comes at a time of great uncertainty for handset makers following a batch of profit warnings from technology companies in Europe and North America.
"Nokia could give a profit warning but we're now at the beginning of March so if one was coming if should have come by now", said analyst Petri Korpineva at Finland's largest brokerage Evli Securities, which has a buy rating on Nokia.
But he said Nokia may miss slightly its flat year-on-year euro 0.19 ($0.177) per share forecast for the first quarter.
At lunchtime Nokia shares were off 4.1 percent at euro 27.67 , helping to knock European tech peers lower. Ericsson was off 2.7 per cent at 89.50 crowns.
Nokia is still 17 per cent higher for the last eight sessions, helped in part by orders for costly high-speed third-generation (3G) mobile phone networks. But it remains 58 per cent below its life high on concerns about slowing global handset growth, delays in launching GPRS and 3G cellphone systems, and fears of a hard landing for the US economy.