Vodafone continues to pull down the market

Trouble in the tech and telecoms sectors continue to cut away at the FTSE-100 Index, which has so far dropped 86.1 points.

It now rests at 5818.1, as the market continues to feel the effect of Vodafone's £3.5bn share placing yesterday.

The mobile giant continues to lose weight, with its shares slipping 3%, or 6¼p, to 192¾p.

Rival operator Orange is displaying an even larger drop, off 18p at 697½p, despite announcing a 33% rise in group turnover for the first quarter.

Other new economy stocks suffering included Spirent, down 39¾p at 348¾p, Misys, off 26p at 582p, and Dimension Data, down 4½p at 343½p.

Banking stocks are also under pressure - Halifax is down 9p to 781p, Abbey National has fallen 15p to £12.28 and Barclays has dropped 17p at £21.79.

On a busy day for corporate results, Shell lost has nearly 3% of its value, falling 15½p to 567½p, despite record first quarter results.

Analysts worries about lower oil prices in the coming months also hit BP Amoco, which fell 17p to 598½p.

Among other companies reporting results today, CGNU has lost 38½p at 936½p despite announcing record sales and a 12% profits hike.

But ICI is up 8½p at 423p, after announcing first quarter figures that show a 6% fall in pre-tax profits, because the figures are better than City forecasts.