NZ stocks: 'Monday-itis' keeps sharemarket in low gear

12.00pm

The sharemarket appeared to be suffering from a case of 'Monday-itis' this morning, with little direction from offshore weekend trading.

Just after 11am the NZSE-40 capital index was down 1.90 points to 2076.81 on thin volume of $7.9 million.

"It's really pretty light at this stage...I think we're going to be light until the election is decided," Greenslades broker Paul Walt said.

Even market leader Telecom was seeing little action, down 1c to 509 on light volume.

The Warehouse eased 5c to 745, while Telstra was down 9c to 551, Fletcher Building eased a cent to 268 and Tranz Rail slid 15c to 225.

Auckland Airport bucked the trend, rising 2c to 427, as speculation continued as to when and how the Auckland City Council would sell its 25 per cent stake. UnitedNetworks put on 10c to 890 as the utility sifts through potential buyers.

BIL International, formerly Brierley's, was steady at 73 this morning, after announcing it was whittling down its shareholding in Singaporean diversified company Fraser and Neave a little further to just under 9 per cent.

Stocks to go ex-dividend included Mainfreight, ex-3.5c (last traded at 138), and Tower, ex-14c (down 13c to 446).

So far there have been 18 rises and 28 falls on 91 stocks traded.

Over the weekend, Wall Street's blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average eased back as a drop in US consumer sentiment and fears about more financial shenanigans rattled investors.

Initially stocks rose on a rosy outlook from Dell Computer Co and a 14 per cent increase in earnings from General Electric. But it faded as Duke Energy Corp kept worries over corporate credibility alive, as the utility said it received subpoenas from federal agencies requesting documents relating to its trading activities.

The Dow fell 117 points, or 1.33 per cent, to 8684.53, after opening higher and then dropping 2 per cent. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index ended down 5.98 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 921.39.

The Nasdaq Composite ended off 0.94 point, or 0.07 per cent, at 1,373.49.

- NZPA