NZ stocks: NZX on a negative bent today after OCR

The New Zealand sharemarket plunged lower today after the central bank spiked its official cash rate and following an overnight trend in offshore bourses.

At 5pm, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 15.98 points at 2640.25, while the NZSX-All capital index was down 4.83 points at 893.01.

Bellwether stock Telecom was down 4c at 564, accounting for 56.3 per cent of the respectable $135.1 million turnover on NZX today.

Among the 156 stocks traded were 29 rises and 74 falls.

ASB Securities broker Stephen Wright said trading on NZX was today driven by dips in most offshore markets.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand's (RBNZ) move to lift the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 5.50 per cent had also weighed on the market, he told NZPA today.

This was particularly so as the RBNZ's governor, Alan Bollard, said "a further adjustment to monetary policy" may be needed later this year.

The combination of factors led to most stocks on the top 50 board losing ground.

"In general the New Zealand market has held up better than all the others," Mr Wright told NZPA today.

"All of those (overseas) markets seem to be down about 1 per cent, but we're (on the NZSX-50) only down 0.6 per cent," he said.

In news today, Contact Energy shares were unchanged at 591 after posting a 63 per cent hike in its March half net profit to $55.3 million.

"A very good result, although the shares initially came down 10 cents... On a better day we'd have probably seen Contact (shares) up," Mr Wright said.

Affco Holdings reported a 3.7 per cent increase in its March half net profit to $11.2 million. Affco shares were unchanged at 24c.

"Things are good for them, but the trouble with Affco is it could be down next year or the year after," he said.

Fletcher Building shares were down 5c at 454 after the Commerce Ministry imposed final anti-dumping duties on imports of Malaysian galvanised steel wire.

The duties conclude an investigation started when Pacific Wire, a unit of Fletcher Building, filed a complaint in September last year alleging dumping was taking place and damaging its business.

Among the shares to dip today were: AMP down 13c at 677, Cavalier down 5c at 490, Carter Holt Harvey down 2c at 212, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 13c at 1315, F&P Appliances down 6c at 479, Promina down 10c at 440, and Tower down 3c at 169.

Stocks on the rise today included: Auckland International Airport up 2c at 677, Powerco up 5c at 212, TrustPower up 1c at 420, Sky Network TV up 5c at 550, and Wrightson up 1c at 140.

Overseas, Wall St's Dow Jones fell 135.56 points to 10,342.60, the Standard & Poor's 500 15.70 points to 1122.41, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 42.99 points to 1989.54.

Britain's FTSE 100 shed 51.2 points to 4524.5, while the Nikkei lost 40.59 points to close at 12,004.29.

- NZPA