NZ stocks: Exchange survives US slump

The sharemarket did not share in the drubbing dealt to overseas markets yesterday, although the key NZSE-40 index closed down more than 1 per cent.

David Fergusson of Greenslades said the US markets were spooked by faltering high tech stocks, particularly bellwether stock Cisco Systems, a major internet equipment maker.

The New Zealand market suffered as a result, in tandem with a falling kiwi dollar.

The NZSE-40 capital index closed down 30.89 points, or 1.49 per cent, at 2044.62 while the small companies' NZSE-SCI capital index shed 35.68 points, or 0.67 per cent, to 5252.46. Reasonable turnover of 24 million stocks was valued at $79.10 million,

Falls far outnumbered rises by 92 to 25 on the 153 stocks traded.

"It was a pretty poor performance here by the market but not completely unexpected. If you look at the main board there's a lot of red ink there, but a few stocks are going against the trend," Mr Fergusson said.

He said many New Zealand investors were not panicked by the US fall overnight because they had already exited technology stocks, and were watching from the sidelines.

"Many have switched to the industrial, cyclical stocks. Here we're switching people into stocks like Sky City casino ... anything with yield in it people are interested in, given the direction of interest rates and the possibility [today] that rates could be cut."

Mr Fergusson said a lot of people had also invested in cash and shorter-term securities as they waited to see when the market would bottom out.

Advantage Group, in which Eric Watson is a major shareholder, reversed its recent slide from late February, rising 1c to $1.14, and Auckland Airport was also up 1c at $3.57, while ANZ gained 5c to $18.05.

Fletcher Building gained 1c to $2.07, Baycorp was up 5c at $11.55, Reid Farmers gained 3c to 98c and Michael Hill rose 10c to $3.95.

However the main players sank - Telecom lost 13c to $5.72, Telstra shed 15c to $7.80, Montana lost 5c to $4.06 and Lion Nathan was down 5c at $4.85.

Sky City lost 14c to $9.54, Sky TV slipped 15c to $3.60, and Port of Auckland was down 9c at $5.51.

Fletcher Energy shed 7c to $9.42 and Forests lost 1c to 33c.

Carter Holt Harvey closed down 6c at $1.80 after announcing a joint venture in China with majority shareholder International Paper.

- NZPA