NZ stocks: Market closes for Christmas in the black

1.00pm

The sharemarket sleepwalked into the Christmas break today with no changes of note in the shortened session.

At the midday close, the NZSE-40 capital index was up 0.42 per cent at 1946.6.

The index to date has dropped 5.6 per cent this year, a relatively good performance compared with Australia which was down 12 per cent, the United States (down 13 per cent) and Britain (down 23 per cent).

Auckland Airport closed up 3c at 548, market leader Telecom was up 2c at 461, and discount retailer The Warehouse gained 4c to close at 715.

Tower, which is in play with a mystery buyer chasing a 10 per cent stake, fell back 2c to 212.

Contact Energy gained 6c to 391 after announcing yesterday it bought NGC's Taranaki Combined Cycle power stations for half a billion dollars.

TrustPower rose 8c to 353 after buying NGC's Cobb power station for $92.5 million as part of yesterday's deal.

Independent Newspapers was unchanged at 300, Fletcher Building was up 2c at 335, Sky Network TV was up 3c at 323, casino operator Sky City rose 2c to 797, Tranz Rail gained 2c to 106 and Ports of Auckland was up 5c at 650.

In the United States, blue chips fell on Monday as reports of soft consumer spending just before Christmas spelled trouble for retailers, but a rise in semiconductor shares lifted technology stocks.

Trading was light as US fund managers and traders began to leave early for the Christmas holiday.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 18.03 points, or 0.21 per cent, at 8493.29; the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 1.62 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 897.38; and the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index gained 18.66 points, or 1.37 per cent, to 1381.71.

- NZPA