NZ stocks: FCL Energy weaker in choppy trading

The New Zealand sharemarket had a fairly thin end to the week, led down by poor performances overseas.

The NZSE-40 capital index ended the week down 10.19 points, or 0.52 per cent, at 1948.41. Turnover of 27.66 million stocks, valued at $82.66 million, was led by Fletcher Energy, with $22.81 million worth of shares traded.

Nick Caughey of ABN Amro said the week ended with a thin and choppy session pulled down by poor sentiment overseas, made worse by a profit warning from Microsoft after the US market closed.

The kiwi rose during the day to end just under 43USc after the release of better than expected current account figures.

"Telecom really dominated the selling, the main thing is global telco sentiment falling off," Mr Caughey said.

Telecom ended the week down 5c at $5.25, recovering from a 10c fall mid-morning after news that Standard and Poor's had not included Telecom in the Australian Stock Exchange as part of changes to its ASX stockmarket indices, an inclusion some analysts had expected.

"That will be on liquidity I would have thought. You almost saw Telecom come off its lows after that - sell a rumour, buy a fact sort of thing. That's been well priced in," Mr Caughey said.

Telecom also finally stated its interest in Australian telco Cable and Wireless Optus' mobile assets, and hinted that it might involve other parties. The company did not name NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile company, which has strongly been linked to Telecom's interest.

In other news, Lion Nathan said it would not increase its bid price of $3.20/$3.80 for Montana shares, despite a higher independent valuation of $4.16 and $4.64.

That shook Montana shares down 10c to $3.95, while Lion lost 1c to $5.24.

Fletcher Energy was down 16c at $8.58, after a 3 per cent drop in oil prices and a poor performance in Capstone Turbines overnight. Fletcher Building was up 2c at $1.95, and Forests gained 1c to 29c.

ANZ shed 70c to $17.90, Baycorp lost 10c to $12.20, Tower shed 3c to $5.07 and Telstra was down 4c at $8.36.

Auckland dental software supplier Software of Excellence listed yesterday and closed at $1.20 - a 20c premium to the issue price.

SEI's $5 million public share offer closed fully subscribed on December 12.

Fisher and Paykel gained 15c to $7.65, Horizon was up 40c at $9.05, and The Warehouse rose 5c to $5.75.

- NZPA