NZ stocks: Market slips back on yesterday's gains after early surge

The New Zealand sharemarket lost ground on yesterday's 15-month high in trading today, but not before it had tested greener pastures shortly before midday.

At 5pm, the benchmark NZSX-50 was down 0.04 points at 2239.98, while the NZSX-40 capital index was down 2.03 points at 2153.59.

However, morning trading saw the NZSX-50 push beyond yesterday's closing high of 2240.02 to hit 2245.12.

At market close, shares in heavyweight Telecom finished down 8c at 503, after $56 million worth had been traded on volume of 10.9 million.



On the New Zealand Exchange today there was $114.5 million worth of shares traded on volume of 35.7 million. Among the 139 stocks traded were 36 falls and 49 rises.

Macquarie Equities investment director Arthur Lim said the market showed signs of volatility today.

Telecom shares traded between 526 and 501 before settling on their closing price of 503, he said.

"Whilst the market ended up flat it was a day of volatility," he said, noting Telecom's rise was on the back of strong buying.

It was little surprise the Commerce Commission's draft recommendation on Telecom's local loop network was in favour of unbundling.

Unbundling would allow competitors to offer broadband services on the local loop network.

"When the unbundling decision came out the market reacted to that and Telecom dropped eight cents which led to the market ending flat," Mr Lim told NZPA today.

In other market news, Fletcher Forests shares closed up 1c at 125 after rising 3c yesterday on news of a second bid for the company's extensive forest estate.

"There is a higher level of certainty that a deal will happen on the sale of the forest estate," Mr Lim said.

On overseas markets US stocks hovered near the unchanged mark yesterday, leading UK shares closed lower, and Japan's Nikkei stock average rose one per cent to hit a 15-month closing high.

On NZX, shares on the slide included: Auckland International Airport down 5c to 660, AMP down 5c to 750, Hallenstein Glasson down 3c to 290, Sky City Entertainment down 6c top 871, Air New Zealand down 2c to 52, Rubicon down 1c to 72, and TrustPower down 8c to 487.

On the rise were: Carter Holt Harvey up 5c to 174, Contact Energy up 1c to 478, Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 11c to 1486, Lion Nathan up 9c to 614, Ports of Auckland up 14c to 805, F&P Healthcare up 10c to 1255, and The Warehouse up 14c to 534.

- NZPA