NZ stocks: Market continues quiet run

The New Zealand sharemarket continued its quiet run, although the benchmark index was in the black despite falls in offshore markets.

By mid-morning, the benchmark NZ50 gross index was up 4.45 points, or 0.23 per cent, at 1906.31, while the top-40 index was up 4.48 points, or 0.24 per cent, at 1888.61.

Turnover of 6.58 million stocks was valued at $20.45 million.

"It's been shockingly quiet the last few days," Stephen Wright of ASB Securities said.

"The reporting season's officially finished, and analysts are picking over things. There's nothing dramatic anywhere... the market's finding no great impetus from offshore."

Telecom was up 1c at 437, The Warehouse gained 12c to 570, Air New Zealand was up 1c at 49, Contact Energy lost 3c to 444, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 11c at 941, and Fletcher Building gained 2c to 360.

Hawke's Bay meat company Richmond was up 13c at 308, just below PPCS' new offer price of 311, after news yesterday that No 4 shareholder Graeme Lowe had sold his 8 per cent stake to PPCS.

However, Mr Wright said Richmond was not of interest to most market watchers, with the majority of investors from the Hawke's Bay.

Sky City rose 5c to 870, Tranz Rail fell 1c to 106, Baycorp Advantage was up 2c at 129, jeweller Michael Hill rose 10c to 455, and Turners Auctions gained 5c to 275.

Southern Capital was down 1c at 63 after its recent announcement that it would move to full ownership of hire company Hirequip.

There were 34 rises and 23 falls on the 102 stocks traded.

On Wall St, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 44.12 points, or 0.58 per cent, at 7524.06; the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 6.75 points, or 0.84 per cent, at 800.73; and the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 6.9 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 1271.47.

In Japan, the Nikkei average sank over 2 per cent yesterday to close below 8000 for the first time in 20 years, while Australia closed at a four-year low.

Overnight, the FTSE-100 index closed up 16.7 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 3452.

- NZPA