NZ market down but property trusts strong

The float of DNZ Property Fund has been pulled but the property trusts already listed on the New Zealand sharemarket performed strongly today.

AMP Office rose 3c to 78, ING Property rose 4c to 79, Kiwi Income Property Trust rose 4c to 104, and Property for Industry rose 1c to 117.

"I think what you will have found is over the last couple of weeks institutions will have been taking money out of property trusts to fund their take up of DNZ shares. Now that is not happening they will slowly be moving back into those stocks," said Ross Cuthbert, adviser at Craig Investment Partners.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 7.473 points, or 0.237 per cent, at 3146.457, having initially opened higher. Turnover was worth $106 million. There were 44 rises and 33 falls among the 109 stocks listed.

US stocks fell on Thursday after data showed the US services sector unexpectedly shrank in November and investors worried about Friday's non farm payroll data.

"It was a pretty soft day after the US market was weak but we have held up a lot better than Australia," Mr Cuthbert said.

Telecom fell 6c to 241. It said today that it remained committed to a self-regulatory outcome on the issue of mobile termination rates with the Commerce Commission expected to make a recommendation to the Government in a final report early next year.

Fletcher Building fell 6c to 781. Contact was unchanged at 585.

NZOG rose 2c to 172 after saying the first gas and liquids are being piped ashore from the offshore Kupe filed to a processing plant near Hawera. The company said that after 23 years of work to make it happen shareholders were about to be rewarded for their perseverance.

Shares losing ground included NZ Refining Co, down 12c to 415 and Sky City down 5c to 335.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.8 per cent to close at 10,366.15, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 0.8 per cent to end at 1099.92, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.5 per cent to finish at 2173.14.

- NZPA