NZ shares: Market edges down reflecting Dow's slide

12.00pm

New Zealand shares had a slightly negative tone this morning as Wall Street nerves got the better of investors last night.

Just after 11am the sharemarket was down 1.16 points to 2117.63 on turnover worth $33.4 million.

In the US, warnings from telco giant Lucent and surprisingly soft retail sales data dashed investors' hopes, plunging the Dow Jones industrial average down 114.91 points, or 1.19 per cent, to 9502.80.

The most actively traded stock on the local market this morning was Carter Holt Harvey, which gained 3c to 206 after a 4c rally yesterday, when the company's Pinepanels business said it had signed a marketing deal in China. The stock topped mid-morning turnover on 6.8 million shares worth $14 million.

Volatile stock Baycorp Advantage lost 8c to 362 and Telecom was down a cent to 522. The telco announced today that it had reached a network upgrade deal with French company Alcatel.

Other stocks to move included Port of Tauranga up 4c to 114, Sky City up 2c to 638, Blis down 2c to 43 after releasing a profit result yesterday, and Seafresh, up 0.5c to 3.5 on turnover of 357,000.

Independent Newspapers was steady at 375 after the Australian Financial Review reported it was looking at selling its regional publications in Victoria, Australia.

Falls outnumbered rises by 19 to 31 on 97 stocks traded.

On Wall Street, the Dow's fall was replicated by the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index, which sagged 10.7 points, or 1.05 per cent, to 1009.56, according to the latest data. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 22.23 points, or 1.46 per cent, to close at a fresh eight-month low of 1496.89.

- NZPA