NZ stocks: Investors resist panic on Black Friday

The market resisted panicking in response to the denial of Shell's bid for Fletcher Energy. However, it still closed down a hefty 2 per cent at 1877.40 - near where it had opened.

The NZSE-40 had been at 1872.92 around 10 am.

Nigel Scott, head of institutional sales at ABN Amro said Black Friday had been a relatively positive day considering October was traditionally a nervous time for investors.

"I don't think we saw any aggressive selling in the Fletcher camp today at all," Mr Scott said.

Thursday's shock announcement from the Commerce Commission that it was not giving clearance for the Energy sale came after local market close but the stock was battered on Wall St overnight Thursday. Fletcher Energy lost $1.71 as soon as trading began yesterday but recovered somewhat to close down 122c at 814.

Fletcher Building closed up 7c at 190. Forests was unchanged at 42.

"On the NZSE-40's 41-point loss on the day, 19 was attributable to Fletcher Energy and 15 points to Telecom so I don't think we saw a lot of panicking around news ex-US markets. I think the markets got pretty used to this period in October - this is always a nervous time of year, around the crash date of 1987.

"The most positive comment was from Fletcher Challenge, that they would go ahead with their Fletcher Forests cash issue - Building and Energy are effectively the bankers for Forests so if they said they were not going ahead, well they are liable for it anyway. The general chat is how much value Shell wants to give up ... and how much they would anticipate paying for Energy."

The NZSE-40 Capital Index closed down 2.16 per cent, while the NZSE-SCI small companies capital index closed down 82.43 points (1.64 per cent) at 4947.01. Falls outnumbered rises 77 to 31. Total turnover was valued at $137.26.

Carter Holt Harvey lost 5c to 157, Fisher and Paykel shed 8c to 702, Genesis lost 20c to 630 and Lion Nathan was down 10c at 480.

Nufarm was down 9c at 396, Montana shed 6c to 294 and The Warehouse lost 5c to 580. Telstra lost 20c to 780 and Telecom shed 19c to 521 and Tranz Rail was down 5c to 370.

On the upside, AMP put on 41c to $22.21 and SkyCity 9c to 690.

- NZPA