NZ stocks: Market slips on Telecom's slide

Trading on the New Zealand sharemarket today saw the benchmark indices make modest retreats as leading stock Telecom subsided on weaker overseas sentiment.

The NZSX-50 gross index closed 8.3 points or 0.36 per cent lower at 2272.52, while the NZSX-40 capital index ended the session 5.6 points or 0.26 per cent lower at 2174.88.

First NZ Capital research manager Barry Lindsay said turnover was relatively high today at $167 million but of that just over half was in Telecom which normally makes up between 20 and 40 per cent of trade.

"Essentially the decline in the (NZSX-50) index is just about entirely explained by Telecom's movement with a few gainers offsetting losers.

"The relatively tight range of the index disguised the volatility that we saw in Telecom's share price", he said.

Telecom which carries a 27 per cent weighting in the NZSX-50 opened lower, then ventured higher before descending again to close 6c lower at 510.

Much of the selling of Telecom was foreign-based transactions, Mr Lindsay said.

"I think weaker international sentiment overnight translated into the weaker performance by Telecom on our market today", he said.

Elsewhere, new listing Freightways added to its gains since its debut on Monday, closing 2c higher at 178 after trading to a fresh intra-day high of 180.

Mr Lindsay said another stock which stood out today was discount retailer The Warehouse which continued its recent advance, rising 3c to 550 against the weaker market.

Last week, the stock was trading in the mid- 530s, today it traded as high as 565 on reasonably high turnover.

Mr Lindsay said retailing generally was going quite well with the approach of Christmas and reports last week that consumer confidence was currently at five-year highs.

Mr Lindsay also said it was good to see insurer and financial services group Tower retain its recent gains. Today it closed unchanged at 134 after rising during the previous three sessions.

"There's seems to be some interest in that stock with speculation about the sale of the group's general insurance business", he said.

Among stocks to rise today were: Air NZ up a cent to 51, AMP up 13c to 775, Cavalier Corp up 6c to 516, Mainfreight up 2c to 135, Pacific Retail up 2c to 257, Promina up 2c to 357, Provenco up 3c to 35, Sanford up 8c to 509, and Waste Management up 2c to 376 .

Among stocks to fall today were: Auckland Airport down 5c to 657, BayCorp Advantage down 4c to 253, Contact Energy down a cent to 499, Dorchester Pacific Group down 10c to 180, Fletcher Forests down a cent to 128, Fisher & Paykel Appliances down 5c to 1440, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 5c to 1270, Genesis Energy down 3c to 103, Hellaby Holdings down 5c to 515, Independent Newspapers Ltd down 5c to 451, Michael Hill down 2c to 420, NZX down 4c to 450, and Tranz Rail down a cent to 107,

There were 42 rises and 45 falls among 142 stocks traded.

- NZPA