NZ stocks: Market reverses early tumble

12.29pm

A slump on Wall St on Friday registered briefly on the New Zealand market today, which kicked off with a small fall before it bobbed back into the black.

By late morning the benchmark NZSX-50 was up 0.07 per cent, or 1.52 points, at 2312.01, although the top-40 index was down 0.1 per cent at 2210.44.

On Friday, on profit-taking after disappointing business forecasts, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrials lost 0.71 per cent to 9721.79; the Standard & Poor's 500 fell 1.02 per cent to 1039.32; and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.94 per cent to 1912.36.

New Zealand's top-50 index closed on Friday at a record high, and the top-40 index was at a more than four-year closing high.

By mid-morning turnover of 6.89 million stocks was valued at $20.10 million.

Telecom, which topped turnover with $7.4 million worth of shares, gained 3c to 506.

"Whenever we see some abatement of that enthusiastic zeal for the growth sector and cyclical stocks, which happened in the last couple of days or so, we see an abatement of that selling as the focus shifts back again towards Telecom, which is a fundamentally very cheap stock," Macquarie Equities investment director Arthur Lim said.

Streaking ahead today was Fisher & Paykel Appliances, which climbed 30c to a new high of 1520, although it was on just over 1000 shares.

"Investors are looking at their announcement on Friday that they are looking to double production in the (clothes) dryer market -- the more important implication there is that they are starting to get some really good traction in the US market," he said.

Sister stock F&P Healthcare rose 5c to 1270.

Retailers also had a good start to the week with The Warehouse up 10c at 575, Hallenstein Glasson up 1c at 300, and Pacific Retail up 1c at 272.

Courier company Freightways was up 1c at 181, Powerco rose 2c to 190, Scott Technology rose 6c to a fresh high of 320, and New Zealand Oil and Gas was up 1c at 36.

On the down side, Carter Holt Harvey fell foul of profit takers, easing 2c to 184 ahead of its third quarter results on Wednesday, while Air New Zealand lost 1c to 53 before its annual meeting in Auckland on the same day.

Independent Newspapers Ltd was down 5c at 450, Baycorp Advantage was down 3c at 260, Fletcher Forests lost 1c to 129, Contact Energy was down 1c at 505, and Tranz Rail shed 2c to 123.

Newly listed 42 Below was down 2c at 38, CDL Hotels lost 1c to 39, and Richina Pacific, which issued a profit downgrade on Friday on the back of its Chinese leather operation, fell 2c to 34.

Port of Lyttelton shed 16c to 170 after disappointing news at its AGM on Friday that its coal loader project was behind schedule and almost $5 million over budget.

Former dairy farmer Dairy Brands NZ was up 5c at 71 in its first day of trading under its new name Finmedia.

There were 37 falls and 31 rises on the 114 stocks traded.

- NZPA