NZ stocks: Market drifts lower in quiet trade

The sharemarket eased back in early business today as Contact Energy shed some of yesterday's gains and Tower lost further ground after its disappointing result.

The NZSX-50 gross index was off 6.24 points at 2340.00 while the NZSX-40 capital index was down 2.43 points at 2229.21 at 11.30am.

Turnover was steady at $25.66 million.

Today's session was "relatively quiet" so far, ASB Securities' Stephen Wright told NZPA.

Contact Energy, which yesterday sprinted 21c ahead to a new high of 560, today lost 15c to 545.

"Contact probably went too high yesterday and is just suffering from some profit taking today," Mr Wright said.

Insurer and financial services group Tower, which reported a $149 million annual loss yesterday, fell another 4c to 125 to add to yesterday's 5c loss.

Mr Wright said Tower's result had met with mixed but generally unfavourable reaction. "The turnaround hadn't been quite so strong as people were hoping and operating margins were lower."

Air New Zealand was up 2c to 47 following a report it is set for windfall gains from the soaring kiwi dollar. Some analysts expect it to reap as much as $75 million from the rising currency. "So you may see a few punters there," Mr Wright said.

Sanford fell 3c to 532. The fishing company yesterday produced a $47 million 13-month profit that was helped by foreign exchange hedging gains. Earning before interest, tax and depreciation fell from $83.7 million to $50.4 million and margins in the second half were squeezed by lower than expected tuna catches.

Market heavyweight Telecom was up 1c at 515 but most other lead stocks were slightly off in compensation for yesterday's buoyant session.

Fletcher Building was down 2c to 406, Fisher and Paykel Appliances was down 3c to 380 and sister stock Healthcare was down 10c to 1200.

Chip maker Mr Chips was unchanged on 90c after announcing it had made a tax-paid profit of $728,942 in the six months to September this year, 15 per cent lower than the same period last year.

Ryman Healthcare was up 6c to 212 following its well received result on Monday.

AMP was down 5c to 660 while fellow insurer Promina was down by 3c to 367 and Tranz Rail fell a cent to 142.

Mr Wright expected the market to remain quiet for the remainder of the week because of today's Thanksgiving holiday in the US and the following half day tomorrow which would see US orders dry up.

Rises were outnumbered falls 27 to 35 on 115 stocks traded by 11.30am.

In the United States, stocks edged slightly higher as buying interest ebbed before Thanksgiving despite a barrage of positive economic data pointing to a recovering economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 15.63 points at 9779.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index edged up 4.56 points at 1058 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 10.27 points up at 1953.31.

- NZPA