Nokia lower on news of GPRS problems, fears over statement tomorrow.
Shares in Nokia Corp were lower in early afternoon trading on unconfirmed reports that some of the company's new GPRS handsets may not work perfectly with the oldest GPRS networks, and fears chief executive Jorma Ollila could say something negative tomorrow in Nokia's mid-quarter trading statement, dealers said.
At 1.45 pm, Nokia was down 4.62% at 27.23 euro, with the general HEX index down 3.45% at 8,435.88.
"There was a report in the trade magazine Global Mobile that some of Nokia's latest GPRS handset models may not work perfectly with the oldest existing GPRS networks," one dealer said.
"These sorts of problems have appeared before with telecom equipment manufacturers, as there is significant evolution of technology even within the framework of one standard such as GPRS," he added.
"Also, there are some fears that chief executive Jorma Ollila could say something negative in Nokia's mid-quarter trading statement tomorrow," he added.
"I don't place much confidence in these rumours since it's difficult to believe things could have changed so drastically over the last two weeks since Nokia's Capital Market Days analysts' meeting in New York," he said.
"What is fuelling these rumours is the general macroeconomic weakness globally, and the fact that Nokia's share-price valuation is pretty high right now in relation to its earnings," the dealer said.
"Nokia's share price has risen significantly during the last two weeks, and is currently quite sensitive to any bad news," he said. NNN
© AFX News
Story filed: 12:04 Monday 10th December 2001
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