NZ stocks: Fletcher Energy withstands global chill

A global chill in equities markets sent the New Zealand market 1 per cent lower yesterday and saw the barometer NZSE-40 index plunge towards a renewed test of the 2000 barrier.

"When the world goes down, we go down for sure," said Cavill White's Don Turkington.

He said, relative to some markets, the NZSE-40's 19.98 point plunge to 2014.01 was "quite good."

The top 10 index ended 11.58 points down at 928.02 while the small stocks index fell 54.67 to 5320.72. There were just 32 rises against 81 falls.

The market fall was not on heavy volume, with total turnover of only $68.2 million.

Telecom plumbed fresh six-year lows of $6 but recovered in late trading to be 15c down at 610c. The stock appeared to have a level of support at $6. It comprised $29.8 million of the turnover.

Mr Turkington said he wouldn't be surprised to see the market rebound. "If the foreign markets were to have a breather and bounce then I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this thing pick up a little bit."

Of the leaders, only Fletcher Energy stood against the tide. It rose 3c to 895c as investors continued to punt that a takeover bid was imminent.

Some of the market favourites took a beating with moves exaggerated because there were few buyers to prevent the fall.

Baycorp, for example, shed 95c to $11.65 on relatively thin turnover of 84,000.

Other former favourites to fall included Advantage, down 16c to 215, Auckland Airport, 11c to 277, GDC, 25c to 425, Port of Tauranga, 10c to 545, and The Warehouse 10c to 585.

Southern Capital slumped 12c to 76c after the Wellington-based property company posted a $1.39 million bottomline loss for the year to June, its first 12 months as a listed company.

Cedenco was another to take heavy punishment - falling 9c to 120.

Commsoft, the New Zealand-based software company, picked a bad day to list. Its $A1.10 ($NZ1.45) shares closed here steady at 145.

Others to lose ground included Nuplex, 11c to 290, Air NZ As, 2c to 186, and the Bs, 5c to 270, National Mail, 10c to 75 and PDL, 11c to 445.

Among the few to buck the trend were AMP, up 18c to 2208, Natural Gas, 1c to 144, TransAlta, 7c to 279 and Sanford, 4c to 439.

- NZPA