Vodafone and mm02 shares down

Though there was a signs of a revival this morning, shares in Vodafone fell all week and on Thursday the closing price was 111p, down 8.5% on the day. This price means that, in market value, Vodafone has slipped behind NTT DoCoMo who has taken its place as the world's largest mobile operator.

The stocks in Vodafone and mm02 have fallen this week on fears about revenue growth and delays in the rollout of 3G services.

The share price of these companies was also adversely affected by the announcement by the BT Group of a return to the mobile market. There were worries in particular about mm02 [of which Digifone is a subsidiary], the former mobile arm of BT which was the biggest loser on Thursday down 11.4%.

The worries about mobile companies profitability hit the shares in many telecom service providers. Deutsche Telekom fell 3%, France Telecom dropped 5.6 %, Orange shed 7 %, and Nokia fell 3.8%

Companies that supply equipment to mobile phone operators and others in the telecom sector were also hammered, with Alcatel down 7 %.