Vodafone shares fall 5% following trading update

Vodafone narrowly missed a consensus analyst forecast for third-quarter revenue after competition in southern Europe continued to bite and it cut prices in South Africa, sending its shares down as much as 5%.

Service revenue fell 3.9% to €9.79bn in the three months to the end of December, narrowly below the average analyst forecast of €9.82bn in a company-compiled survey.