Financial Times discusses in a recent blog: What can we learn from the last major downturn? In the immediate aftermath of the 2008 Lehman collapse, telecoms was the best-performing sector in Europe. Initially investors viewed the sector as defensive, reasoning that connectivity was largely a utility and that cash-generative stocks with generous shareholder return policies would be safe havens. In the period following the Lehman collapse the STOXX 600 Telecoms index (SXKP) was -10% versus the market -27% (15 September to end-2008). In the subsequent quarter, it continued to outperform a falling market (-7% versus -10%) before underperforming as GDP began to recover once the market rallied in mid-2009. In 2010 the sector performed in line with the market as macro impacts began to be felt and in 2011 it actually underperformed a falling market until the eurozone debt crisis of H2. Lets call the periods as follows: T1: following the Lehman collapse and the subsequent quarter T2: after T1 and before T3 T3: 2010 T4: 2011 The information above suggests the following for the beta of telecoms: Select one: It was negative in T1 It was greater in T1 compared to T3 It was greater than one in T1 It was greater in T4 compared to T3.