NZ stocks: Good results from heavyweights fail to inspire

12:00 pm

The sharemarket continued to drift today despite half-year results from three market heavyweights delivering on expectations.

Credit Suisse First Boston broker Phil Hardie Boys said there was a certain degree of relief that there were no negative surprises.

Fletcher Building fell back 5c to 303 after it posted an interim profit of $41 million. Mr Hardie Boys said it had risen strongly ahead of its result on high expectations.

"I think the result is right in line with expectations but there was quite a bit of expectation in the result. It's just a short-term reaction."

Sky TV initially rose 13c to 433 but then fell back to 425 and is expected to give up remaining gains. Its half-year loss narrowed to $13.2 million from $19.6 million and it reported continued steady subscriber growth.

Its 66 per cent owner, Independent Newspapers, rose 2c to 385 after it announced its half year profit had risen to $27.1 million from $13.9 million. The result was not fully comparable because INL for the first time consolidated Sky's result and the net profit was boosted by around $12 million by using some of Sky's tax losses.

The NZSE-40 index was up just 1.70 points to 2087.11 by 11.30am.

Telecom showed no ill-effects from some fallout in global telcos overnight. It rose 2c to 532.

Baycorp Advantage continued to suffer from its move across the Tasman, following up yesterday's heavy losses with another 5c decline to 660. Mr Hardie Boys said the stock had been affected by analysts lowering their profit forecasts.

The Warehouse, which had lost considerable ground since reporting robust Christmas sales, regained 5c to 660.

ANZ Bank fell 45c to 2150.

Independent News & Media exchangeables gained 10c to 860.

Total volume was light at $17.5 million and there were 18 rising stocks against 35 losers among the 110 traded.

- NZPA