BT disappoints - shares slump

As readers ought to know, I have been a member of BT Global Services UK Advisory Board for some years. For that reason I've steered clear of writing too much about BT. My (ex) colleague, Mike Cansfield at Ovum knows BT really well and wrote this review of BT's Q3 results - What a difference a year makes or you can read the FT's BT misses revenue targets.

What I can report is that BT has formed - indeed still forms - a part of Holway's Tech Portfolio. So it hurts me to report that reaction to BT's results put the share price into freefall - falling 12.5% this week alone and off nearly 30% from last year's high.

Mind you it's been another disappointing week all round for stocks with NASDAQ down another 4.5% (13.1% YTD), FTSE100 down another 4.1% (10.4% YTD) and the FTSE SCS Index down 3.3% (7.4% YTD). Both big and small compnaies were affected. Indeed, it is sad to report that the AIM Index fell below 1000 - the point at which it started all those years ago in 1995. As I read the outlook announcements from the companies in our sector - both EDS and CSC in the last week - they all warn of more difficult times ahead.

With this much pessimism around, you really can't expect things to get any better anytime soon. So batten down the hatches, prepare for the worst and hope it's not quite as bad as that.