Telcos shrug off Nasdaq drop

NEWS While the US enjoys its Presidents' Day holiday, European markets this morning traded flat in the wake of Nasdaq's sharp fall on Friday. Both IBM and Nvidia last week had their accounting practices called into question. Nasdaq traders on Friday got the jitters pushing both companies' share prices down. Big Blue lost $5 while Nvidia saw 7.7 per cent shaved off its value and a further 2.7 per cent in after hours trading. European telecoms companies brought some vitality to Monday trading. Deutsche Telekom benefited from a Goldman Sachs upgrade in the operator's earning estimates and saw its share price into the green by 1.6 per cent by late morning. France Telecom followed suit with a 0.66 per cent gain while Vodafone gained 1.1 per cent.