NZ stocks: Market flat after slight falls on Wall St

12.00pm

The sharemarket was flat this morning following slight rises on Wall Street yesterday.

The NZSE-40 capital index was up 1.25 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 2022.32, on light trading worth $14.29 million at about 11.30am.

McDouall Stuart Securities executive director Chris Stone said there were no major stock movements and the market lacked direction.

"It's just been range trading and there has been no real signal from the New Zealand market this morning."

Market leader Telecom fell 2c to 519 from yesterday's four-month high.

Fisher and Paykel Appliances, up 11c to 1071, and Healthcare, up 7c to 1089, continued to climb ahead of their November result dates.

Investors had been cautious of F&P Healthcare due to the weakening of the United States markets, where its growth potential lay, but now they were showing more confidence, Mr Stone said.

"We're going to see a gentle re-rating of that stock."

AMP revived further to 1510, up 30c. Mr Stone said the securities market had digested the situation involving AMP's UK arm, Pearl.

Fishing company Sanford was up 8c to 513 following the announcement yesterday its full year profit rose 23 per cent to $37 million.

Natural Gas Holdings continued to climb, up 6c to 154, its highest price since September 2000.

WestpacTrust rose 15c to 1485, Baycorp Advantage climbed 6c to 326, and Steel and Tube was up 7c to 308 following a strong first quarter result.

Tranz Rail slipped 8c to 140, matching last month's all-time low, following the release this week of a report which found its rail network was "fit for purpose", but that parts of it were being operated close to their practical limit.

ANZ Bank was up 35c at $21.00 after announcing a record annual profit across the group of A$2.3 billion ($2.7 billion).

There were 29 rises and 18 falls on 103 stocks traded so far.

In the United States, technology stocks propelled market indexes higher on Wednesday as investors scooped up shares that had been battered a day earlier by a bleak forecast from Texas

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial average rose 44.32 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 8494.48, while the tech-loaded Nasdaq Composite index climbed 27.44 points, or 2.12 per cent, to 1320.20, near its session highs.

- NZPA