NZ stocks: Selling sees top 10 fall like nine-pins

Significant falls among eight of New Zealand's top 10 stocks knocked 1.25 per cent off the NZSE-40's value yesterday as overseas selling increased, said JB Were senior investment adviser Peter Stokes.

"It's been a pretty active day today - there was a bit of offshore activity on the sell side," Mr Stokes said.

"In the past few days the market has been fairly light, so a bit of activity on the sell side had a pretty significant impact on the market.

"But it came through over the course of the day - the market didn't gape open, the downwards momentum took a while to build up."

The NZSE-40 Capital Index fell 26.08 points (1.25 per cent) to 2061.84, while the smaller companies capital index came off 4.13 (0.08 per cent) to 5376.58.

Turnover totalled a healthy $121.7 million, but falls outnumbered rises 71 to 36 among the 147 stocks traded.

Market leader Telecom plummeted 18c to 637 on turnover of 3.4 million shares worth $22.1 million, while other top 10 stocks Fisher & Paykel, Fletcher Building and INL all sustained 10c losses to fall to 735, 228 and 380 respectively.

The Warehouse came off 11c to 585, Sky TV was down 9c at 368, number two stock Carter Holt Harvey was 4c lower at 175, Auckland Airport eased 2c to 286c and Fletcher Forests fell 1c to 82.

The only other stocks on the positive side of the top 10 ledger were Fletcher Energy, which gained 7c to 885, and Tower, up 10c to 525. Contact was steady on 255.

Mr Stokes said interest in the New Zealand sharemarket had been light during the reporting season and there had been little corporate news recently.

"Given the light buying we've had lately, the additional selling moved the stocks around a bit," he said.

Elsewhere on the market, both Air New Zealand stocks fell 2c - As to 191 and Bs to 275 - on the day the national carrier announced that Qantas deputy chief executive Gary Toomey would become its captain, as tipped in the Business Herald on Tuesday.

Telstra weakened 16c to 795, Trustpower and Port of Tauranga both fell 9c to 301 and 576 respectively, while Ports of Auckland finished 8c lower at 410.

Advantage came off 7c to 236 and Baycorp was 5c lower at $13.25, while Lion Nathan gained 5c to 475.

- NZPA