NZ stocks: Equities weather the storm

The sharemarket dipped yesterday, although volumes traded in some major stocks were tiny.

The NZSE-40 capital index closed down 25.42 points, or 1.23 per cent, at 2044.01, while the small companies' NZSE-SCI capital index fell 45.07 points, or 0.89 per cent, to 4991.97.

Turnover of 42.96 million stocks valued at $96.65 million included 6.4 million Telecom stocks changing hands for $37.89 million.

Nigel Scott, ABN Amro head of institutional dealing, said the market had held up well considering the carnage overseas, particularly in the technology and telco sectors.

About one-third of the turnover was done before the market opened, he said.

Rubicon topped the turnover by volume, with 9.17 million stocks. Capstone dropped $US6 in the United States overnight to $US22.50.

Telecom, down 15c at $5.83, hovered within a very tight range yesterday, partly because many market participants were attending a telecommunications conference in Sydney, Mr Scott said.

"It stayed within the $5.83-$5.85 range all day. Looking at the Australian market, there still seems to be further interest coming from that area.

"The broader market did just drift off a little on light volume, and there were some moderate losses."

Contact Energy fell 7c to $2.91, INL lost 10c to $3.60, Tranz Rail shed 20c to $3.75 and brewer Lion Nathan was down 5c at $5.30.

DB Group fell 20c to $5.20 but the volume was tiny, Mr Scott said. Similarly, Christchurch electronics firm PDL Holdings lost 79c to $5.20 on 1300 shares traded.

Montana lost 8c to $4, Air New Zealand A shares were down 1c at $1.02 and the Bs lost 3c to $1.45. Telstra fell 15c to $7.60.

The kiwi dollar had also moved around a little in response to the Australian interest rate cut, said Mr Scott.

"Looking on the positive side, there seem to be just a couple of Aussie-related movements, also, that were currency-related - Axa (up 5c to $3.45), AMP (up 17c to $25.27) and Tower (up 10c to $5.60)."

Stocks to rise included Fletcher Building, 2c to $2.33, Nufarm, 3c to $3.38, and The Warehouse, 4c to $5.80.

Falls outnumbered rises 72 to 30.

Advantage slipped a further 7c to 74c and National Mail shed 1c to 4c.

Said Mr Scott: "Our market's still doing a lot of work around these levels and probably in some minds has quite surprisingly held up, in the view that a lot of the tech and the telcos around the globe, and the airlines, actually came under a lot of pressure again."

- NZPA