Paris puts screws on Eurotunnel

EUROTUNNEL refused to be pushed into an emergency Stock Exchange statement on Thursday despite demands from French regulators to explain recent share movements.

Paris's Commission des Operations de Bourse called on the Anglo-French Channel Tunnel operator to comment on its 'strategy and financial situation' because of recent increased share trading volumes.

Eurotunnel said it would update the market in its third-quarter trading statement in a fortnight's time and denied speculation in the French Press that shareholders had demanded a special general meeting.

Shares in the company ran up 40% in the last two weeks of September to an 18-month high but have fallen over the past week to trade unchanged on Thursday at 63p.