NZ stocks: Market falls after out of step rise yesterday

7.05pm

The New Zealand sharemarket followed Wall St into negative territory, easing slightly today despite an unchanged Telecom.

James Lindsay of New Zealand Guardian Trust said the market was lower following its out-of-step gains yesterday.

The benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was down 11.74 points, or 0.50 per cent, at 2321.86, while the top-40 index lost 0.53 per cent to close at 2219.54.

Telecom was unchanged at 497, but Air New Zealand lost 2c to 48 after announcing it would decide this week whether to appeal the negative decision from Australia on its proposed tie-up with Qantas.

Fletcher Building also fell, down 5c at 413 despite comments from the company that demand continued in the construction sector.

Carter Holt Harvey was down 3c at 182 and Contact Energy lost 6c to 507 ahead of its result on Friday.

Nigel Scott of ABN Amro Craigs said one broker had been active today with a lot of selling.

Telecom's turnover of $21.5 million and Sky City's $10.6 million worth of shares topped total turnover of 41.89 million shares valued at $113.09 million.

"There's a bit of portfolio selling... a lot of high volume but a lot of it's in crossings (between brokers) across the whole board," Mr Scott said.

"I though the results we had today were pretty good."

Fisher & Paykel Appliances closed down 14c at 1485 after announcing a 3 per cent improvement in first half profit to $35 million.

That was more to do with the general selling than specifically because of the result, he said.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, having risen 20c yesterday when hinting at a brighter future after an interim profit downtown, eased 35c to 1200.

The Warehouse was down 2c at 583, Sky TV lost 3c to 520, AMP shed 22c to 690 on light volume, Auckland Airport was down 6c at 689, Lion Nathan lost 7c to 649, Pacific Retail was down 2c at 238, and Promina lost 3c to 378.

Casino operator Sky City continued to gain ground, up 4c to 926 after the company commented yesterday it would be interested in bidding for Perth's Burswood Casino if the price and circumstances were right.

Meat company Affco lost 1c to 24 despite announcing yesterday it had turned around an annual loss to post total after-tax earnings of $16.6 million.

Westpac was up 28c at 1717, Tower gained 3c to 138, ANZ was up 15c at 1940, Postie Plus was up 2c at 119, Briscoe gained 4c to 184, Freightway was up 1c at 189, and Sky City Leisure rose 4c to 115.

There were 65 falls and 27 rises on the 138 stocks traded.

- NZPA