NZ stocks: Market flat on moderate trading

6.30pm

The New Zealand sharemarket marked time today with moderate trading seeing 0.01percent shaved of its benchmark NZ50 gross index.

The NZSE40 capital index fell by 5 points or just over a quarter of a percent to 1957.96 on turnover of 30.7 million shares worth $87.9 million.

The day's trading was reflected in market leader Telecom's performance, it ended the day where it began at 473.

JB Were institutional adviser Joe Gallagher said Telecom stock initially got sold off today on concerns the Singapore government is going to sell its stake in Singtel.

"There is a perception now that there is a very big overhang of stock in the region and both Telecom and Telstra were sold weaker."

Telstra finished 2c down at 479.

Also a "potential negative" for Telecom Mr Gallagher said was the Commerce Commission's draft determination on Telecom's Telecommunications Service Obligations (TSO) due to be released at the end of the month.

Nevertheless Mr Gallagher said his company had upgraded Telecom in advance of its third quarter result tomorrow.

"We believe it will be a sound result tomorrow and I think the markets have picked up in the afternoon as they started looking forward to a good result."

Westpac shares today fell 35c to 1635 despite it announcing a 34 percent increase in net profit for its New Zealand operation.

Mr Gallagher said the market was possibly expecting a slightly better result.

"The headline number was probably in line with market expectations but there were a few queries about the quality of the result and there was no buyback which the market was expecting".

ANZ followed Westpac down, dropping 25c to 2045.

Auckland International Airport continued to rally, rising 15c to 525 following its profit forecast yesterday showing it was coping with impact of the Iraq war and the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak.

Mr Gallager said today's rise showed investors were becoming "more comfortable with the resilience of the company's earnings stream even despite reductions in airline capacity and visitor arrivals".

Troubled Australasian financial services giant AMP continued to drift lower after its dramatic plunge earlier in the week. Its shares fell 3c to 584 today and it was the top stock traded today by value with $20 million worth of shares c hanging hands.

Carter Holt Harvey was "quite weak" breaking the 160 level to close 5c down at 159."Probably just following global resource stocks lower, it tends to follow the rest of the regional resource companies," Mr Gallagher said.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Appliances both fell today. The Healthcare division falling 5c to 1085 and the appliances side of the business dropped 9c to 1075.

Mr Gallagher said the healthcare division's fall was a result of concerns of it being "left out in the cold" after one of its competitors Resmed formed a joint venture with a major US company. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare also reached a settlement with Resmed on a patent issue today

Tranz Rail finished higher, up 2c to 45 due possibly to "a perception that the selling pressure or stock overhang is coming to a close," Mr Gallager said.

Other stocks to rise included Contact Energy up 9c to 450, Brierley Investments up 5c to 65, Sky City up 9c to 794 and the Warehouse up 5c to 470.

Stocks which fell included Air NZ down 1c to 42, Independent Newspapers Ltd down 5c to 410, Lion Nathan down 21c to 627, and Waste Management down 5c to 320.

There were 46 rises and 38 falls on 123 stocks traded.

- NZPA