"But in the meantime, there are some tremendous advances in technology. That is going to continue, so if you start early, you are closer to the ground floor." Soros, who has endured major losses from falls on New York's technology-rich Nasdaq said he would withdraw from high-risk stocks and concentrate on steadier investments. However, he stressed that his change in direction was partly because he was now aged 70 and wished to create "an organisation that will outlive me."

Soros, who made one billion dollars by betting against the pound when it was forced out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992, also disclosed that he had lost from betting on a rise of the euro.

He argued that European authorities should have intervened. "I have greater faith in intervention than the authorities themselves. They have a lot of reserves and they ought to have backed the currency they are running," Soros said.

Telia stock falls below IPO price
Stockland: Shares in Swedish state telecom group Telia have plunged in the three days since a much-hyped stock market launch and in trading on Friday, they remained below the introductory price for the second day.

Swedish officials, anxious to keep the Telia initial public offering (IPO) on track financially and psychologically, downplayed the slip in the share price, saying it was too early to draw any conclusions on the longer-term performance.

Telia shares were changing hands Friday at 84.5 kronor, down a fraction from the price of $9.8 dollars at which the issue made its public debut on Tuesday. On Thursday, it dropped to a low of 83 kronor, 10 percent below the 93.5 kronor high registered at the launch, the largest ever initial public offering (IPO) in the Nordic region.

The low came despite a bid by US investment bank Morgan Stanley to prop up the share price with intensive supporting purchases. According to the Svenska Dagbladet daily, it has bought almost 40 million shares. But Trade and Industry Minister Bjoern Rosengren, the government's salesman-in-Chief for the partial Telia privatisation, insisted there was no need to worry. "Telia has been listed on the stock exchange for three days and the market has gone down overall. So take it easy," he told the Swedish news agency TT.

"You can't comment on the share price after three days ... I never expected anyone to make a killing after three days," he said. The sale of a 30-percent stake in Telia was heavily-subscribed by domestic investors: More than 11 per cent of the Swedish population bought Telia shares. The conservative daily Svenska Dagbladet said the IPO had turned into a catastrophe, headlining: "Telia's stock market introduction appears increasingly to be a fiasco."

The paper noted that while Telia shares had lost 10 per cent of their value, the stock market had dropped by only five per cent.

The government put 30 per cent of Telia on offer on Tuesday. It has not ruled out selling off more of its remaining 70-per cent stake at a future date, but said Tuesday this would not happen for at least six months while it evaluated the effects of the IPO.

The offer was more than four times subscribed. The sale generated total revenues of 76.6 billion kronor. Of that, 63.8 billion kronor will go to state coffers and 12.8 billion kronor to Telia.