Major European tech stocks emerged relatively unscathed from a run on several markets in the region, as global investors got jittery on the potential impact of Japan’s destructive earthquake.
Vendors including Nokia, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent all traded relatively stable in their domestic markets yesterday, despite investor’s concerns about the damage already inflicted on Japan’s productivity and the potential of a nuclear explosion at power plants in the country driving down prices across the board.
Nokia stocks fell €19 cents on the Helsinki exchange, however its closing price of €5.89 was uncomfortably close to the firm’s 52-week low of €5.88. Rival Ericsson was relatively stable falling just 1.16% to 76.70 Swedish Kronor (€8.63) by late afternoon, while Alcatel-Lucent’s stock remained flat by the close in Paris at €3.78.
Operators were also largely unaffected. France Telecom’s stock fell 1.7% to €15.20, and Deutsche Telekom closed down €11 cents at €10.01 in Frankfurt.
Despite the stable picture among European tech firms, global vendors could now face a shortage of components for infrastructure and consumer electronics, with several leading Japanese chip makers suffering damage to production facilities, WSJ.com notes.
Global shortages of key device components including camera modules, touch screen controllers and AMOLED displays in 4Q10 compounded similar supply issues for major infrastructure vendors. Gartner last month forecast those problems alone would last until the back half of 2011.