Already dubbed "Black Monday" today has been described by analysts as "utter carnage".
Big telecoms brands have seen significant drops today including Gamma (-10%), TalkTalk (-6%), BT (-9%), and Zoom (-10%).
As Prime Minister Boris Johnson heads into emergency talks this week it is expected the country will move into measures named 'social distancing' which could include encouraging people to work from home as much as possible, no large gatherings (including sporting events) and restriction to public transport.
Although technology can't directly stop the spread of the virus much of the tech sector will be in a position to enable their customers can comply with any restrictions but also help businesses keep running to avoid minimal impact. We have already seen some big UC vendors offer up free versions of their software to help businesses get through this difficult time. These brands include Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, LogMeIn, Blue Jeans, Gsuite among others.
On a day traders will remember for the drop in prices the UK tech sector may remember it for a different reasons. Just today Ministers and industry have agreed a £1 billion investment to improve connectivity in rural areas in the UK
Commenting on the new deal, Julian McGougan Executive Director, Telecoms, Spectrum and Satellite at techUK said: “techUK very much welcomes the Shared Rural Network agreement. This is the latest initiative by a Government which wants to make fast, reliable digital connectivity available to substantially everybody in the UK by 2025.
“This £1 billion of additional investment comes on top of the many billions of prior investment made by the mobile networks, and is focused where it needs to be: hard to reach premises and roads."