NZ stocks: Sept 11 fails to kickstart Monday market

12.00pm

Getting the anniversary of September 11 out of the way failed to help the sharemarket when it opened for business this week.

Dragged down by market leader Telecom, the NZSE-40 Capital Index had lost 5.07 points to 2035.79 by 11.30m this morning. Volume was very light at $21.2 million.

Wall Street had a mixed day on Friday where the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average lost 66.72 points, or 0.80 per cent, to 8,312.69 and the tech-packed Nasdaq Composite Index gained 11.72 points, or 0.92 per cent, to 1,291.40.

Telecom, which yesterday announced it and rival TelstraClear had reached a partial deal on their long-standing dispute over interconnection, was down 3c to 489 on $7.7 million worth of shares.

The "bill and keep" deal, that has not settled pricing issues, includes agreement not to charge each other for all local calls including internet calls and the 0873 and 0867 number ranges.

Michael Hill International soared 17c to 585. It announced it would pay a 20cps special dividend following the sale of its Australian head office building for A$4.5 million ($5.3 million).

GRD, owner of Macraes Gold Mine, was up 12c to 127 on a small parcel of shares.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was steady at 984 after being 7c down earlier in the session, Pacific Retail was up 15c to 355 after announcing a bonus issue on Friday, Wrightson down 11c to 119, and Sky City up 5c to 710.

Lion Nathan was up 10c to 600, Port of Auckland was down 5c to 620, and Carter Holt Harvey was down 2c to 174.

Hellaby, which has had a good run after its result last week was up another 3c to 278.

Troubled rail operator Tranz Rail, which last week posted a $122 million annual loss but said it was on track for a $55.8 million operating profit for the current year, recovered from another 5c drop earlier this morning to "steady" status to 155c.

So far there have been 23 rises and 26 falls among the 96 stocks traded.

- NZPA