NZ stocks: Quiet sharemarket ignores global market volatility

12.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket held up well this morning after key markets fell offshore.

By mid-morning the NZSE-40 capital index was down 5.33 points, or 0.26 per cent, at 2052.71 with light turnover of 9.55 million stocks, valued at $19.44 million.

Topping turnover by value was Contact Energy's $4.81 million, followed by Baycorp Advantage with $3.20 million.

Richard Burton of Forsyth Barr Frater Williams said a lot of leading stocks had made up quite a lot of ground after some poor performances recently.

"The Dow Jones finished down but the New Zealand sharemarket is holding up quite well," Mr Burton said.

"I think a lot of stocks have come back a long way -- Baycorp down another cent on big volume (at 478) but they've come back a long way, Carter Holt Harvey off (down 3c at 184), Contact Energy on good volume (up 5c at 403).

"Fisher & Paykel Healthcare's up 10c, it looks like the selling pressure's come off that stock. I think some of these stocks present good value," he said.

Healthcare was at 905, while Appliances was up 15c at 915 after announcing it was on track to beat expectations of its full year result, due on June 7.

Telecom was down 5c at 486 as global telecom stocks were sold down and tech stocks fell out of favour overnight.

Sweden's Ericsson lost nearly a quarter of its value on Monday as the telecoms equipment maker said it would ask shareholders to inject almost $US3 billion ($NZ6.77 billion) and warned it would not return to profit this year.

Ericsson's gloomy outlook, on top of a bigger than expected quarterly loss, is even more pessimistic than last week's forecasts by rivals Nokia Oyj of Finland and Canada's Nortel Networks.

Investment company Guinness Peat Group was up 1c at 203.

"It's had a healthy move recently ... it's still trading at a healthy discount to its value based on the investments it holds and the cash it holds. That's been re-rated recently, which is good," Mr Burton said.

Fish exporter Sanford lost 5c to 565, retailer Pacific Retail was down 2c at 223, Sky City casino lost 2c to 593, pay television company Sky TV was down 2c at 440, and AMP lost 15c to 2285.

Auckland Airport was up 2c at 440, Ports of Auckland gained 3c to 640, Steel & Tube was up 5c at 295, Tranz Rail rose 4c to 385, and Ryman Healthcare gained 9c to 170.

Falls outnumbered rises 29 to 24 on the 90 stocks traded.

On Wall Street, the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index sank 38.15 points, or 2.12 per cent, to 1758.68; the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average fell 120.68 points, or 1.18 per cent, to 10,136.43; and the broader S&P 500 dropped 17.34 points, or 1.54 per cent, to 1107.83.

- NZPA