NZ stocks: Market takes a breather

12.00pm


The sharemarket was slightly down on Friday's gains with both major indices taking a breather in the wake of the reporting season.

At 11.30am, the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index had slipped 9.48 points to 2213.89, while the top-40 index was down 10.57 points at 2137.59.

Market heavyweight Telecom led trading with $4.6 million worth of shares turned over on volume of 904,514. Its shares were down 4c at 510.

By 11.30am $13.8 million worth of shares had been traded on volume of 5.7 million.

Among the 100 stocks traded were 32 falls and 14 rises.

Forsyth Barr broker David Price said the market was quiet as analysts and investors picked over the finer print of the financial results released over the past month.

"You could probably expect the market to drift a little bit lower over the next couple of weeks," he told NZPA today.

"That's reflected in The Warehouse."

The Warehouse shares slipped back 15c to 495, after confirming on Friday an after tax profit of $75.4 million.

The result was down 8.3 per cent on last year's result.

Other stocks to give up ground were: AMP down 19c to 755, ANZ Bank down 40c to 1960, Kirkcaldie & Stains down 8c to 335, NGC Holdings down 5c to 157, and Steel & Tube down 12c to 354.

Stocks on the rise were: Briscoe Group up 1c to 175, Pacific Retail up 1c to 231, Sky City Leisure up 3c to 123, and Telstra up 1c to 553.

In other market news, companies going ex-dividend today are Capital Properties (1.9cps), NGC Holdings (5cps), Steel & Tube (12cps), and Turners Auctions (8cps).

- NZPA