NZ stocks: Market droops as Wall St falls

12.00 pm

Stock prices sagged due to lack of buying interest in morning business on the sharemarket today.

The NZSE-40 capital index added to yesterday's 24.4 point fall to be down 3.92 points to 2072.82 at 11.30m.

Volume was light at $21.3 million with nearly half of that in Telecom which was down 1c to 494.

No 2 stock Carter Holt Harvey was down 3c at 196. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 16c from a low to be at 985.

The tone of the market was not helped by Wall Street where the Dow fell 1.2 and the Nasdaq by 1.8 per cent. The US markets were worried about worse-than-expected retail sales and tech sector earnings.

CDL Hotels initially gained 1c to 25 cents after the company reported a six fold increase in its full year profit but then eased back to 24c. However, sister company, CDL Investments, fell 3c to 18c after it posted a $264,000 year loss.

Colonial Motors, which reported a 20 per cent increase in its half year profit yesterday, rose 5c to 270.

A line of two million Burns Philp shares worth $1.6 million traded off market, boosting overall turnover.

Independent News & Media NZ was up 5c to 850 after it reported a full year profit of $336.4 million of which $285.7 million was a one-off gain from the sale of mastheads to APN News and Media in December.

The Warehouse was up 3c at 695, Baycorp Advantate was up 5c at 675, NZ Refining rose 10c to 1810 and Scott Technology fell 9c to 180.

There were 24 rises and 29 falls among the 103 stocks traded.

- NZPA