NZ stocks: Market opens lower in line with US

12:00 pm

The New Zealand sharemarket dipped slightly in morning trade, in line with a softer US session.

The benchmark NZSE-40 index was down 5.77 points at 2122.71 by 11 am, on light turnover worth $16.6 million.

ABN Amro dealer Nigel Scott said the market was directionless.

"Yesterday felt like a Monday session so we're really trying to get some activity and volume back into the marketplace.

"The US market closed down on their afternoon session and we seem to be following that lead," he said.

Among the leading stocks, Telecom was flat at 546, Auckland Airport slipped a cent to 390, Carter Holt Harvey was down 4c at 193, Sky TV lost 5c to 425, Sky City was down 2c at 610 and The Warehouse was down 5c at 662.

On the flipside, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare bounced 25c to 1500 after putting on a better show on Wall St overnight, while its Appliance cousin was up by the same amount at 1010.

Among the second-tier stocks, biotechnology company Genesis fell 8c to 316 after this morning reporting a net loss of $9.6 million for the year to December.

The result, including a $1.6 million writedown of its recent investment in BioStore NZ, was down on the previous year's $700,000 profit. No dividend will be paid.

Briscoe Group was up 1c at 177, Owens Group added a cent to 146, Mainfreight slipped 2c to 165 and Richmond fell 2c to 233.

Falls outnumbered rises by 39 to 27 among the 116 stocks traded so far.

In the US stocks fell on Tuesday, driving the Standard & Poor's to its biggest decline since September, as investors unloaded shares of Tyco International Ltd and Williams Cos on concern the companies may have mis-stated profits.

The declines reflect eroding confidence in corporate accounting after the collapse of energy trader Enron Corp.

The S&P 500 dropped 32.39, or 2.9 per cent, to 1100.67, its biggest tumble since September 20. The Dow lost 247.51, or 2.5 per cent, to 9618.24, its biggest decline in three months. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 50.96, or 2.6 per cent, to 1892.95.

- NZPA