Nokia shares fall on concerns over potential loss of Verizon business

Shares in Nokia fell up to 8% in Wednesday trade on concerns that the Finnish company was losing the business of its key client Verizon in the United States.

Nokia, battling with China’s Huawei and Sweden’s Ericsson, is trying to strengthen its 5G slate and looking especially to deployment by U.S. telecom companies for growth.

Overnight, JP Morgan downgraded Nokia to “neutral” from “overweight”, citing a potential loss of business with Verizon.

“We believe that there is a real risk Verizon will depend less on Nokia as their primary RAN (radio access network) supplier going forward,” JPM said in a note, adding there were signs Verizon was using Samsung.