NZ stocks: Market cedes yesterday's gains

The New Zealand Exchange reversed its healthy gains made yesterday to close down more than 1 per cent today, lead down by Telecom.

After gaining 1.84 per cent yesterday to mark the end of the financial quarter, the benchmark NZSX 50 lost 1.19 per cent today, or 26.30 points, to close at 2186.22.

Turnover of 42.05 million stocks was valued at $133.53 million.

Market leader Telecom ended down 5c at 519 on heavy volume of $43.77 million.

Andrew Kelleher of ASB Securities said heavy trading on the New Zealand market today was a plus, despite the fall in the indices.

"The market's trading a reasonable volume. Most of the leaders apart from Sky (TV) have fallen back from the good day yesterday though.

"That seems to imply that perhaps there was some window-dressing and end-of-month activity yesterday ... the buyers weren't quite as dedicated as we would have liked them to have been," he said.

While Sky TV was up 11c at 446, Auckland International Airports lost 13c to 600, The Warehouse shed 13c to 505, Contact Energy lost 5c to 500, Carter Holt Harvey was down 5c at 174, and Tranz Rail lost 1c to 92.

"It's interesting in that the market had been looking a little bit over-extended ... that end of quarter pushed us through those highs again and it would have led some commentators to think the bull run was going to carry on," Mr Kelleher said.

"Today puts us back in that not-so-sure territory. Fears are resurfacing from a week or so ago that the bull run had come to an end."

Financial services stock Tower shed 8c to close at 140 after releasing details of a revised plan to raise more than $200 million in new capital.

"It's interesting in that the comment that's come to the market indicates that the underwriting of the proposal still looks like it hasn't been completely sorted out," Mr Kelleher said.

"It looks like all of the details haven't been quite ironed out just yet, so it will be an interesting couple of days ahead."

Elsewhere on the market, Restaurant Brands was up 1c at 139, casino company Sky City rose 2c to 945, Lion Nathan was up 2c at 615, Trustpower gained 14c to 500, and Baycorp Advantage rose 5c to 165.

Fletcher Building lost 3c to 364, Fisher & Paykel Appliances was down 20c at 1345 and Healthcare lost 15c to 1220, AMP shed 15c to 565, ANZ lost 17c to 2105, and Promina was down 5c at 267.

There were 69 falls and 29 rises on the 133 stocks traded.

On Wall St, stocks which have rallied sharply over the past 3-1/2 months amid hopes for an economic rebound later this year ended the second quarter in negative territory.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 3.61 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 8985.44; the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 1.72 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 974.50; and the Nasdaq Composite Index edged down 2.45 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 1622.81.

- NZPA