NZ stocks: Market snoozes through day

5.30pm

The New Zealand sharemarket continued to ease into the week with little to provide interest today.

The benchmark NZSE-40 capital index closed down 7.47 points, or 0.38 per cent, at 1963.22, while the top-10 index was down 0.51 per cent at 887.75.

Topping turnover of 20.61 million stocks, valued at $48.02 million, was Telecom's $11.17 million, followed by Carter Holt Harvey's $5.55 million.

Forsyth Barr investment adviser Ken Lister said Baycorp Advantage, which rallied 17c this morning, lost some steam when the Australian market opened.

"Baycorp had a bit of a rally to 240, but closed down 5c (at 218).

"It had 12.8 million (turnover) here -- it was more in Australia because when the aussie market opened, that's when Baycorp started to drop," he said.

Baycorp has recovered from last week's trough of 158.

Australian media said predators, including the largest US credit reporting company Equifax, were rumoured to be circling the Australasian credit information company.

Auckland International Airport closed up 7c at 554 today, after rising 13c yesterday on the back of the chairman's address at the annual meeting heralding a record year.

The airport company said at its AGM it was on path for a record profit, with revenue up 13 per cent at $74 million and the after-tax profit up 20.2 per cent at $25.3 million.

"It had been a bit weaker last week, the buyers have come back in now. There just hasn't been any news about the city council sell-down yet."

The city council has a 25.6 per cent holding for sale, and is pursuing a dual track process inviting offers from prospective trade buyers, as well as an offering to institutional investors internationally.

"There had been concerns about how that would be placed, and that just weakened (the stock) off but the chairman's address underpinned it. People had been holding back from buying it thinking there would be a discount but that might not happen," Mr Lister said.

Fellow blue chip stock, electricity generator Contact Energy, lost 4c to 376 on fairly light turnover of 712,000 shares. Contact reports its annual result on Thursday, expected to be well down from last year's bumper $131 million profit.

"Everyone knows there's a lot more water around than there was last year and spot electricity prices have come down. That will have an impact on earnings in the short term," Mr Lister said.

"But while it's a defensive stock and the market's pretty jittery, and the yield's still quite good, it's probably going to move around in a 10c-15c band."

Elsewhere on the market, Telecom was down 5c at 473, The Warehouse was up 5c at 735, Carter Holt Harvey lost 1c to 169, Fletcher Forests were down 1c at 22, Fletcher Building gained 1c to 325, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 12c to 1070 while F&P Appliances was down 5c at 1085, and casino company Sky City was up 10c at 795.

"There wasn't a lot of major significance -- US markets were down last night, and that kept our market down a bit," Mr Lister said.

There were 45 falls and 43 rises on the 126 stocks traded.

On Wall St, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average at the close was down 93 points, or 1.1 per cent, at 8487; the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 9 points, or 1 per cent, at 900; and the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index also declined 17 points, or 1.2 per cent, to 1394.

- NZPA