NZ stocks: Market plods through a quiet day's trading

6.00pm
It was a quiet day on the sharemarket today as trading plodded along until market's close.

By 4.30pm, Tranz Rail shares had shed 1c to 91 after its stocks surged in value yesterday, peaking at 102 in morning trading.

They closed on Friday at 80c after being halted while the Government announced its proposed rescue package for the beleaguered rail operator.

Today, Tranz Rail traded $2.5 million on volume of 2.8 million.

The Government and Tranz Rail have signed a heads of agreement, which includes the Government paying $76 million for a 35 per cent share of the rail operator through a rights issue at 67c a share.

It would also inject $44 million immediately, buy the national rail network for $1, pay $50 million for associated assets and spend $100 million over five years on network maintenance.

Forsyth Barr broker David Cleal said there were no standout performers on the market today, despite recent interest in some stocks.

"It's been fairly quiet all day, there's nothing going on," he told NZPA today.

The market had been chasing yield-sensitive stocks such as market leader Telecom but now that list was becoming slim, Mr Cleal said.

Telecom finished up 3c at 505, having traded $25.8 million on turnover of 5.1 million.

"The New Zealand dollar has come off a bit against the US dollar and that stock (Telecom) is seen as a bit of a currency play these days.

"US investors wanting to play the NZ dollar have put their money in there."

Since June 4 the kiwi had slipped from US58.09c to US57.33 at 5pm today.

On the stockmarket, the benchmark NZSX50 gross index had gained 2.68 points to 2112.08 at close, and the NZSX40 capital index notched up 1.99 points to 2071.68.

There were 39 rises and 47 falls in the 133 stocks traded. There was $89.6 million of stocks traded on a volume of 31.5 million.

In other movements, Auckland Airport was up 5c to 555, Fletcher Building was up 10c to 380, Kirkcaldie & Stains was up 15c to 345, NZ Refining was up 20c to 1670, and Pacific Retail had gained 5c to 225.

On the down side, AMP gave up 4c to 571, Sky City slipped 3c to 875, NZX shed 13c to 405, NZX rights fell 10c to 255, Westpac dropped 10c to 1790 and JPM Fleming lost 40c to 1010.

- NZPA