NZ stocks: Market pauses for breather

6.45pm

New Zealand shares went into consolidation mode today after a four-day winning streak.

The benchmark NZSE-40 capital index was down 4.65 points at 2010.62 on solid volume worth $93 million, after hitting a two and a half year high yesterday.

Telecom, with its hefty 22 per cent weighting on the Top 40, once again dominated turnover on $29.5 million worth of shares but its price slumped 6c to 464.

Brokers said the overall market appeared to be moving according to order flow.

"There's been a little bit of offshore money coming into the market today. That's why you're seeing selected stocks performing today...representative of order flows on the day," Kerry Porter of Macquarie Equities said.

Elsewhere there was little news, but enthusiasm for this week's big mover Fletcher Forests showed no sign of waning, with the head shares gaining 2c to 120 on 1.3 million shares, and preference shares up 3c to 119 on 3.5 million shares.

This was despite the company being scrutinised by both the Stock Exchange and Securities Commission on suspicion of insider trading, after the shares spiked before yesterday's news of a big cutting rights deal and $140 million capital repayment.

Vending Technologies Ltd recovered 12c to 122 after plunging 50c to an all time low yesterday on warnings its full year profit will be lower than the previous year.

In other moves, Carter Holt Harvey was steady at 189; Baycorp Auckland Airport lost 6c to 540; Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was 19c higher at 980; Guinness Peat Group lost a cent to 151; and The Warehouse was steady at 738.

Rises outnumbered falls by 41 to 35 on 125 stocks traded.

In the United States stocks sagged in late afternoon trading on Wednesday after tepid forecasts on capital spending and revenues from technology bellwether Intel Corp disappointed investors looking for signs that corporate America's ailing health is set to improve.

The technology-laden Nasdaq Composite dropped 22.19 points, or 1.52 per cent, to 1,438.80. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average fell 119.44 points, or 1.35 per cent, to 8,723.18, and the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 13.44 points, or 1.44 per cent, to 918.22.

The latest economic reports also offered investors little hope for a quick rebound in lacklustre US growth.

Weakness in a key inflation gauge spurred concerns a lack of pricing power could hinder any rebound in corporate profits, and the Federal Reserve's closely watched "Beige Book" report suggested that the US economy's sluggishness extended into early January.

- NZPA