Telecom companies take a tumble

NEWS Shares in UK telecom companies fell this morning, after US telcos BellSouth and Ciena issued trading warnings. Cable & Wireless, Colt Telecom, mmo2 and Vodafone all fell after BellSouth said it would cut 2002 earnings per share and Ciena warned it would miss second quarter revenue forecasts. By 10:05 (GMT) Vodafone was down 2.85 per cent, Cable & Wireless had fallen 2.69 per cent, and Colt Telecom was down 7.95 per cent. In the US the Dow Jones index dropped 1.1 per cent in the final hour of trading, and the Nasdaq dropped 3.3 per cent, after the BellSouth and Ciena warnings.