NZ stocks: Market down but offshore US tumbles

12:00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket quickly retreated to fresh eight-month lows after opening relatively steady this morning.

Sam Macdonald of DF Mainland said New Zealand stocks were feeling the pressure across the board.

The NZSE-40 capital index kicked off down 0.38 per cent at 2000.62, but by mid-morning slid to 1989.57, last seen at the start of November and down 0.93 per cent on last night's close.

The top-40 is unlikely to hit 12-month levels soon, given that the slump to 1764 following September 11 was the lowest since October 1997.

The top-10 index was down 0.85 per cent at 878.39.

By mid-morning only 12 stocks had risen, against 61 falls on the 108 stocks traded.

Continuing the recent pattern, volume was minimal with 8.89 million stocks valued at $12.75 million traded, topped in value by Telecom's $4.14 million worth of stocks.

Market leader Telecom opened unchanged but slipped 6c to 468, and fellow blue chip stock Carter Holt Harvey was down 4c at 188.

"The market's still a little way away from finding some real buying support," Mr Macdonald said.

Tranz Rail gained 8c to 220 ahead of issuing further details of its restructuring and plans this afternoon, after seeing a 12c sell-off yesterday.

Its share price ended at 224 on Friday, knocked by a profit warning that operating profits would be between $24 million and $26 million before restructuring costs, in the June year.

"I think people are happy to wait now for the meeting and then take a further stance on it -- it should be reasonably positive," he said.

Fletcher Forests lost 1c to 24 following yesterday's release of unaudited profit figures and Grant Samuel's independent appraisal of the proposed Central North Island Forestry Partnership deal.

"There's nothing new there in the market that will be a catalyst for new, fresh buying at this point," Mr Macdonald said.

Restaurant Brands rose 3c to 173 on tiny turnover of 15,023 stocks from yesterday's nine-month low.

"Restaurant Brands was slaughtered yesterday, sold down to 170, and it's bounced back from there basically -- it was well and truly oversold."

Guinness Peat Group was down 1c at 164, Sky City casino lost 3c to 626, Air New Zealand was down 2c at 64 on continuing speculation about Qantas' search for a shareholding, and Auckland Airport lost 3c to 426 despite announcing yesterday a deal for four new commercial properties on airport land.

BIL International was down 2c at 66, Fletcher Building lost 1c to 268, Briscoe Group shed 4c to 226, and fellow retailer The Warehouse was down 4c at 725.

Among the financial stocks, AMP was down 50c at 1650, although on minimal turnover, ANZ lost 40c to 2050, and Tower shed 4c to 431.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose 8c to 879, Contact Energy was up 1c at 379, Sky TV rose 2c to 390, and biotech company Blis Technologies was up 3c at 58 on small turnover.

On Wall Street, psychology appeared to have taken over with analysts saying investors were facing a crisis of confidence.

From its all-time closing high in March 2000, the broad Standard & Poor's 500 Index is down more than 46 per cent, nearing the decline of more than 48 per cent during the 1973-74 bear market.

The Dow Jones Industrial average sank 234.68 points, or 2.93 per cent, to 7784.50; the tech-laced Nasdaq Composite Index was down 36.50 points, or 2.77 per cent, at 1282.65, sinking through the 1300-point psychological barrier; and the S&P 500 lost 27.91 points, or 3.29 per cent, to 819.85.

Britain's FTSE-100 index ended Monday at a six-year closing low, with the blue chip UK index closing down 202.8 points at 3895.5, making a two-day fall of some 400 points or 10 per cent.

- NZPA