NZ stocks: Market drops nearly 1pc

A modest gain by Telecom was unable to stop the sharemarket from wiping out yesterday's gains, as stocks declined across the board following hefty losses in other markets.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 20.97 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2612.47. Turnover totalled $103.7 million.

``Equity markets around the world have bounced back very, very strongly so we're just seeing a bit of consolidation in that respect,' said First NZ Capital director Philip Hunter.

Top stock Telecom was up 4c at 249, but the news was not so good for other blue chips.

Contact Energy lost a cent to 595, Fletcher Building retraced yesterday's 30c gain and fell 5c to 615, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 12c to 282, F&P Appliances fell 3c to 44, and Auckland Airport was down a cent at 169.

Freightways was placed in a trading halt before the market opened today, as it carried out a book build and share placement to raise up to $50 million of new equity.

Freightways shares closed at 278 yesterday.

``It's a continuation of New Zealand companies looking to strengthen their balance sheet and give themselves a bit more of a buffer as we go through a difficult time,' Mr Hunter said.

Market operator NZX said today it had a mixed first quarter, with healthy amounts of debt and equity raised but a decline in trading activity.

``The market had been anticipating that maybe the tide has turned a little bit in terms of turnover, there has been some debt and equity raising,' Mr Hunter said.

NZX lost 16c to 685, reflecting anticipation of the improved capital raisings.

Stocks were generally weaker across the market. The Warehouse was down 7c at 340, Ryman Healthcare lost 7c to 140, Guinness Peat Group fell 5c to 65, Mainfreight was down 8c at 404, and Sky City fell 10c to 275.

Among the handful of rising stocks, Hallenstein Glasson was up 10c at 235, Skellerup rose 2c to 67, Pumpkin Patch gained 5c to 111 and Infratil rose 3c to 150.

Dual-listed stocks were mixed, with ANZ down 70c at 2050, Westpac rose 65c to 2550, Telstra jumped 25c to 410 on news the Australian government would build a $A43 billion ($NZ53 billion) national broadband network, and AMP was up 10c at 640.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 1.2 percent to 3712, and Japan's Nikkei share average lost 0.2 percent.

On Wall Street, stocks broke a four-day winning streak after a prominent analyst revived worries over the health of banks, and the potential collapse of a takeover of Sun Microsystems bruised sentiment in the technology sector.

Veteran analyst Mike Mayo of Calyon Securities said banks still faced fallout from excessive risk-taking, and warned of rising loan losses by the end of 2010. He rated a number of big and regional banks at ``underperform' or ``sell.'

- NZPA