NZ stocks: Market tumbles 1pc on return to work

The New Zealand market took a dim view of the return to work after the long weekend and closed down more than 1 per cent today.

Stephen Wright of ASB Securities said the local market followed the negative trend throughout Asia and the United States on Friday as concerns lingered about severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).

After the Anzac Day holiday on Friday the benchmark NZ50 gross index was down 1.04 per cent or 20.73 points at 1973.63, while the top-10 index closed down 1.25 per cent at 887.57.

Turnover was moderate, with 23.65 million stocks changing hands for $76.32 million, topped by Telecom's $28.23 million.

Leading the market down was Telecom, which lost 8c to 455, but stocks in the tourism sector seemed to be the worst hit today.

Stocks which succumbed to Sars included Air New Zealand, down 2c at a year low of 37, Auckland International Airport, down 7c at 492, and Tourism Holdings, down 5c at 86.

Despite the recent avalanche of bad news to hit Tranz Rail this month, the rail operator was up 2c at 45.

"That surprises me, but there are still plenty of punters. I would have thought it may have just started to drift lower, because you keep seeing relatively negative stuff such as the Government saying it won't step in," Mr Wright said.

Power generator and retailer Trustpower gained 10c to 425 following news the Australia Gas Light Company had quit its 20 per cent holding as part of a TrustPower share buy-back.

That leaves effective control of the company in the hands of the Alliant International and Infratil grouping, which now holds a combined 59.1 per cent stake.

TrustPower's two-for-seven buy-back offer at 370 per share closed on Thursday and the company announced the results today.

"There's a complete shortage of scrip there - the top four shareholders own 90 per cent, and the top 50 own 90.5 per cent - so anyone trying to buy more than a couple of thousand shares ends up having to pay higher," Mr Wright said.

Fellow power company Contact Energy was down 8c at 451, while large electricity users Carter Holt Harvey lost 1c to 164 and Fletcher Building shed 2c to 333.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances lost 20c to 1065, while F&P Healthcare was down 5c also at 1065.

Among the financial services stocks, ANZ was down 28c at 2072, Westpac lost 29c to 1641, Tower shed 2c to 211, and AMP was down 2c at 925.

Sky TV was down 4c at 396, Independent Newspapers lost 5c to 400, casino company Sky City was down 14c at 828, and Ports of Auckland shed 5c to 690.

On the positive side, Guinness Peat Group rose 2c to 162, The Warehouse was up 1c at 556, fellow retailer Briscoe Group gained 2c to 194, Blis Technologies was up 4c at 38, Genesis Research rose 8c to 130, and BIL International was up 3c at 45.

There were 57 falls and 31 rises on the 128 stocks traded.

- NZPA