Shares in British telecoms giants Vodafone and British Telecommunications (BT) climbed today after signs of better-than-expected first-half results for French-owned mobile phone firm Orange.
Dealers said Vodafone was also lifted by a Merrill Lynch research report. The report said the current share price materially undervalued its growth and cash-flow-generation potential. Merrill kept a price target of 245p per share.
By 9.50 a.m. Vodafone was up 3.7 per cent at 139p and BT was up 1 per cent at 448p.
Shares in Orange and France Telecom jumped after France Telecom released figures to some analysts, dealers said.
A copy of the release, obtained by Reuters but yet to be confirmed by France Telecom, showed France Telecom expected Orange's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and ammortisation in the first half of 2001 to be up 102 per cent from euro 809 million a year earlier.
The major British operators bucked a negative move by other British telecoms stocks, after equipment testing maker Spirent said it was suffering from a slowdown in the industry.