NZ stocks: Baycorp, Force provides interest in flat market

12.00pm

Baycorp provided one of the few points of interest on a flat sharemarket this morning.

Just after 11am, the NZSE-40 capital index had moved less than two points to 2097.49.

Turnover was $29.3 million, which was inflated by crossings of Australian stocks, in particular Newscorp shares worth $10 million.

Interest was high in cinema operator Force Corp which topped the turnover by volume on a million shares. Force, hard hit by the troubles of its Argentinian investment, fell 0.2c to 6.5 after it told the Stock Exchange yesterday it could not explain a sudden rise in share price since last week.

Force shares touched a high of 8.5c yesterday, a 63 per cent rise on its price last Monday.

Shares in its half stakeholder Sky City rose 5c to 640.

Another high flyer was trans-Tasman debt collector Baycorp Advantage, up 10c to 450 on turnover worth $3.9 million.

Yesterday Baycorp announced it was buying the remaining third of Alliance Group Holdings, its joint venture with Commonwealth Bank of Australia, for $A8.4 million ($NZ10.1 million).

The deal is conditional on CBA extending its contract with Baycorp for three years.

Sentiment was positive about the move although there was speculation that CBA's involvement in Alliance might have prevented Baycorp from getting other bank business.

"It's good for Baycorp in two senses, in that they get Alliance Corp for themselves...and secondly it ties in CBA for another three years," said ASB Securities broker Andrew Kelleher.

Interest in Fletcher Forests was fairly low, with ordinary shares falling a cent to 25 after topping the turnover yesterday.

The stock has risen more than 20 per cent after news that it was making a fresh bid for the Central North Island Forestry Partnership with Chinese partner Citic, which was taking a 35 per cent stake in Fletchers.

Mr Kelleher suggested the market was waiting to see if the bid was successful.

"It's been re-rated, repriced at 25c/26c on the basis of a number of things of expected to happen. Let's actually see if they do happen before we move the stock from here."

Market leader Telecom was steady on 510 in fairly light trade. Other moves included Fletcher Building up 6c to 282, Contact up 3c to 412, Genesis up 5c to 295 and Auckland Airport down 1c to 454.

So far there have been 28 rises and 32 falls on 105 stocks traded.

Meanwhile on Wall St, renewed warnings about terrorist attacks in the US helped drive indices down for a second straight session.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 123.79 points, or 1.21 per cent, to 10,105.71, according to the latest figures. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 12 points, or 1.1 per cent, at 1,079.88. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 37.41 points, or 2.2 per cent, to 1,664.18.

- NZPA