NZ stocks: Market sags again after wall st set negative tone

The sharemarket sagged again today on light volume, depressed by the tone set on Wall Street.

"The tone of the market is very ordinary and it's flow-driven," said UBS Warburg broker Campbell Stuart. However, he noted that relatively, the New Zealand market had done reasonably well.

Wall Street's lead was a 0.6 per cent slump to five month lows as investors focused on deepening diplomatic rifts over Iraq.

The new benchmark NZ50 gross index lost its firm morning tone to close down 8.28 points at 1893.58 while the top-40 capital index finished off 5.98 at 1878.15.

Turnover was very light with just 25.4 million stocks changing hands at a value of $57.8 million.

"It's been shockingly quiet the last few days," Stephen Wright of ASB Securities said.

Telecom was the main culprit for the market's turnaround, finishing 9c off at 427 after being in the positive in the morning.

No 2 stock Carter Holt Harvey fell 3c to 170 and Contact Energy fell 1c to 445.

Against that, Fletcher Building put in another "stellar" performance, rising 8c to 366 and another of the market's darlings, Sky City Entertainment, also gained 9c, to 874.

The Warehouse continued its rehabilitation since its result on Monday, rising 16c to 574. There was more than $5 million of both Fletcher Building and The Warehouse traded.

Mr Stuart said the discount retailer had fallen a long way since late January up until its result. The company appeared to have addressed some of the issues at its analysts' briefings this week, he added.

Hawke's Bay meat company Richmond closed up 13c at 308, just below PPCS' new offer price of 311, after news yesterday that No 4 shareholder Graeme Lowe had sold his 8 per cent stake to PPCS.

Telstra shares closed 7c down at 438. The company bought minority shareholder Austar out of TelstraClear for $A25 million, saying New Zealand was a pivotal part to the company's long-term strategy. That may have accounted for Telecom's reversal today.

Southern Capital was down 1c at 63 after its recent announcement that it would move to full ownership of hire company Hirequip.

Independent Newspapes fell 10c to 312. Media stocks in Britain had a grim session.

There were 51 rises and 50 falls on the 138 stocks traded.

The top 10 capital index fell 5.72 to 860.42 and the small stocks index fell 1.09 to 5470.10.

- NZPA