NZ stocks: Leading stocks thumb nose at Wall St

6.30pm

The market defied another fall on volatile Wall Street today, ending up 3.55 points.

The barometer NZSE-40 capital index was up 0.18 per cent at 2021.07 on heavy turnover worth $105.5 million.

In the United States, Wall Street's three-day winning steak came to a halt, with the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 88.08 points, or 1.03 per cent, at 8450.16, and the Nasdaq Composite Index slid 16.92 points, or 1.29 per cent, to 1292.75.

"It wasn't such a bad day considering the Dow was easy, although I think the market here realises that basically the fall on the Dow is more or less a reaction to some of the rises that it's had," said an equities adviser from Direct Broking.

"And our market is tending to hold the gains that it's made over the last week or so."

More than half the trading was seen in Telecom which rose a cent to hit a new four-month high of 521 on $68.9 million worth of shares, capitalising on yesterday's 5c gain.

Brokers said there was good two-way trading in the stock which appeared to have ignited some offshore interest at that price.

Likewise, Fletcher Building held fairly closely to its 13c jump on yesterday, slipping just a cent off yesterday's three-year high, to 316.

The Fisher and Paykel twins continued to firm ahead of their half year results next month. Appliances was steady at 1060, holding its 35c gain on yesterday, while Healthcare gained 7c to 1082, following a 45c gain.

Independent Newspapers rose 5c to 300 and its two-thirds owned investment Sky TV was up 7c to 355. Brokers attributed the rises to a repeated statement by Telecom's chief executive that the company was not interested in selling its INL or Sky TV stakes.

Carter Holt Harvey was unchanged at 163 after announcing Peter Springford as its new chief executive this morning.

Auckland Airport lifted 3c to 525 as one of its major shareholders, the Auckland City Council, announced it would not sell its 25 per cent stake to retail investors because not all councillors would agree to sign a prospectus.

BIL International rose 4c to 64, and fishing firm Sanford soared 7c to 505 as the company announced a net after tax profit of $37 million, compared with $17.8 million the year before.

Steel and Tube rose a cent to 306 after posting a first quarter profit up 21 per cent on the same period last year on the tail of New Zealand's economic growth.

On the negative side, Contact Energy fell 1c to 390, Lion Nathan was down 8c to 600, and Tranz Rail slid 4c to 148.

There were 50 rises and 44 falls on 129 stocks traded so far.

- NZPA