NZ market falls after big gains

After rising for the previous 11 trading days, the New Zealand sharemarket took a breather today.

This was in line with trends in foreign markets and brokers said it was a mixed market with selected stocks still attracting buyers.

The NZSX-50 index closed down 28.005 points, or 0.928 per cent, at 2990.467. Turnover was worth $61.95 million. There were 37 rises and 40 falls among the 108 stocks traded.

From below 2740 points in mid-July, the benchmark NZSX-50 index reached 3018.5 yesterday, its highest level since last October.

Stephen Wright at ASB Securities said it was a fairly quiet session and volume was light.

"We started off with profit-taking and the market fell 20-odd points and we basically held that for most of the day," he said.

It was still a mixed market, he said.

Among the leaders Telecom fell 7c to 281 on profit-taking and as shots continued to be fired in a debate about pricing of mobile services.

Fletcher Building fell 20c to 707 and Contact fell 7c to 622. Nuplex fell 4c to 183.

But Mainfreight rose 8c to 454 and Methven rose 9c to 140.

Air NZ rose 3c to 107, helped by a recent broker recommendation.

NZOG was mixed and closed down 2c at 160 after reporting revenue from the Tui oilfield was $13.9m in the fourth quarter, only about a 10th of the $138.7m revenue for the full year to June.

NZ Farming Systems Uruguay rose 2c to 47 after announcing it had raised US$30 ($46.27) million by selling bonds in Uruguay. PGG Wrightson, a shareholder, fell 3c to 92.

Auckland Airport fell 2c to 171 and it said late today that Air New Zealand had withdrawn an application for judicial review of the airport's aeronautical charges, initially lodged in 2007.

Tower eased 7c to 177. SkyCity rose 2c to 326 and NZX rose 5c to 775.

NZ Refining, which has been buoyed by takeover speculation, retreated 15c to 725.

TrustPower was unchanged at 780.

The Dow and the S&P 500 dipped on Tuesday, but recovered earlier declines, as investors shrugged off weak consumer confidence data and focused on positive earnings reports.

Stocks in the healthcare sector led the market's afternoon rebound, with biotech shares up a day after Amgen's strong quarterly earnings report.

The US consumer confidence index declined more than expected in July, a second consecutive monthly fall, as a sluggish labour market continued to worry consumers, the Conference Board said.

Strong earnings have given a second wind to a stock market rally that wilted in June after a 40 per cent gain in the S&P 500 from its 12-year closing low in March.

"We've seen an 11 per cent rally in 2 weeks," said Tim Smalls, head of US stock trading at Execution LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut.

He said that with the markets technically overbought, and looking for a reason to take a breather, the stock market's slight decline was a good performance.

The Dow Jones industrial average shed 11.79 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 9096.72. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 2.56 points, or 0.26 per cent, to 979.62.

But the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 7.62 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 1975.51.

- NZPA