Brokers said volumes could be slow during the week as Wednesday, May 1, is a holiday both in Sweden and Finland and many market players are taking days off.

Brokers said stocks returned to levels seen before Friday's late rally in the Nordics. Later, the U.S. market was hit by grim earnings data and the week was, in the end, the worst the market had seen since September 11.

"The market went up too much artificially, prices are just adjusting where they were on Friday at lunchtime," said one broker in Stockholm.

The region's Stoxx Nordic index was down 2.1 percent at 0851 GMT, sharply underperforming the FTSE Eurotop 300 index which lost 0.8 percent.

Telecoms equipment group Ericsson , which plunged close to 28 percent last week after poor Q1 results and an announcement the loss-making firm would lauch a share issue, dropped a further 3.1 percent.

Worries still overshadowed the share with some investors worried on how the company would fare with its 30-billion-crown share issue. A shareholders' meeting in June will decide on the issue for which the price or timetable hasn't been announced.

"There's no good news about Ericsson at the moment," a broker said, adding the share could well plunge to 20 crowns.

Ericsson's rival Nokia fared even worse, down 4.1 percent on dark telecom sentiment.

Software maker Stonesoft plunged 11.2 percent - to life-low levels - after the company reported widening first-quarter losses and said it expected to make an operating loss before tax and amortisation in 2002.

WIND TURBINES POWER AHEAD

In Copenhagen, wind turbine group Vestas added 8.8 percent while rival NEG Micon jumped 7.3 percent.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), the U.S. Senate's energy reform measures included a full five-year extension of the wind energy production tax credit, an important factor in financing new wind power installations.

"The extension of the PTC agreement is good news for Vestas and NEG Micon and it lifts the shares," one Copenhagen-based trader said, adding the United States is expected to be one of the fastest growing wind power markets in the world.

On the earnings front, results were due later in the session from old industry blue-chips Outokumpu, engineering firm Atlas Copco , lockmaker Assa Abloy and forestry group Holmen .

Metals group Outokumpu inched up 0.5 percent ahead of its first-quarter report due at 1000 GMT.

The company is expected to post an eight-percent rise in profits year-on-year due to a strong performance from its AvestaPolarit unit, a Reuters poll showed.

Fine-paper maker M-real stregthened 1.3 percent after it reported stronger-than-expected Q1 profits and said it saw steady demand.

Its rival Holmen, which is expected to post a 27-percent drop in pre-tax profit according to a Reuters poll, fell 2.4 percent.

Larger peers Stora Enso and UPM-Kymmene last week reported weak profits, with UPM saying it saw the first signs of firming demand but Stora Enso saying there had been no sustained recovery in its markets.

Both companies' shares traded lower.

Media group MTG , which last week provided disappointing Q1 results, dropped six percent. UBS Warburg said it had downgraded the stock to "hold" from "buy" on concerns about weaker profitability in its pay-TV business.