NZ stocks: Market ends with negative tone

5.00pm

The overall sharemarket took its cue from offshore and slumped into negative territory today, regardless of a hearty share price leap by Fletcher Building.

The NZSE-40 capital index rose 17.90 points to 2020.92 on a low turnover worth $57.23 million.

Wall St provided little in the way of support, having ended on six-week lows as two negative forecasts emerged from blue-chip stocks.

"The market held up pretty well earlier today but fell away later in the day," said ASB Securities broker Ian Witters. "The Australian market's off 21-22 points, it's pretty quiet and disappointing."

Fletcher Building was the star of the New Zealand session, up 19c to 300, after a sought-after share placement yesterday was sold at a five per cent premium to Tuesday's closing price of 281.

The company which is raising money to fund its purchase of Australian buildings products company Laminex Group, touched a session-high of 302, but still eluded its year high of 313.

"The acquisition has been well received, there's good growth opportunities for Fletcher Building," Mr Witters noted.

Elsewhere the market was largely on the downside. Negative global sentiment weighed heavily on top 10 stocks including Auckland Airport down 8c to 432, Carter Holt down 4c to 168, and Contact down 4c to 381, while market bell-wether Telecom dipped 8c to 479.

Tower, which hit a low of 359 earlier this month, ended its recovery period falling back 11c to 385.

Guinness Peat Group eased 2c to 168 while its 19 per cent investment in biotech company Rubicon nudged up 1c to 73. Rubicon said today it had agreed to permit a revised offer for 32 per cent of Rubicon after the UK-based corporate raider was found to have breached the Takeovers Code with its initial two-step offer.

On the upside Fisher & Paykel Appliances bucked the trend, rising 10c to 1050. Mr Witters said the market had continued to see a strong rally out of FPA over the last few weeks as the market accepted its last result and global alliances

All up there were 64 falls and 34 rises on 130 stocks traded.

Meanwhile, on Wall St, bleak forecasts from No 2 US bank JP Morgan Chase & Co Inc and software maker Oracle Corp sparked weakness in a market worried about the outlook for corporate profits.

The nervousness sent the Dow Jones and Standard & Poor's indexes down to their lowest closes since August 5.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 35.10 points, or 0.43 per cent, at 8172.45. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index was down 7.81 points, or 0.62 per cent, at 1252.13. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 4.06 points, or 0.46 per cent, at 869.46.

- NZPA