Telecom shares wobble as Bouygues-Orange deal collapses

European telecom stocks have stumbled after a deal to create France's biggest telecoms group collapsed.

French operators Orange and Bouygues Telecom ended talks late on Friday over the reported €10bn (£8bn) merger.

Bouygues shares are on course for their worst fall in 17 years, plunging nearly 15% in early trading, while Orange shares are down 4.8%.

The news also sent BT shares down 1.1% and Vodafone down 0.5%, although they later recovered some of those losses.

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The potential merger of Orange with its smaller rival Bouygues was intended to prop up profits and would have reduced the number of mobile operators from four to three in France.

Analysts said Orange had set clear conditions that were not met during talks, while Bouygues identified four reasons for the failure, including execution risk and governance.

The Stoxx index of 600 European telecoms firms is down 1% amid heavy falls among other French telecoms stocks.

Iliad - the low-cost rival to Orange and Bouygues - was down 13%. SFR shed 14% and Altice dropped 15%.