NZ stocks: Sharemarket drifts in morning trade

12.40 pm

The sharemarket continued to drift today, with no signs of any major influences from overseas to help give some direction.

"It's very very quiet, almost if not as light as yesterday," Phil Hardie Boys of Credit Suisse First Boston said.

He said Australia was complaining of the same malaise, a situation which could in part be put down to the lack of activity during the US summer holiday.

Some economic data was due out from the US today but Mr Hardie Boys was uncertain if this would have much effect.

At 11.30 am, the benchmark NZSE-40 capital index was 3.59 points, or 0.17 per cent, down at 2063.65.

The NZSE-10 drifted down 0.54 points (0.06 per cent) to 915.52, and the NZSCI index of small businesses was up slightly, 2.09 points or 0.04 per cent, to 5585.16.

Fletcher Forests preference shares were the most heavily traded this morning, with 3.84 million shares worth $1.3 million. It was followed by its ordinary shares at 1.8 million ($622,183).

Price-wise, Fletcher Forest shares rose 1c to 35 and its preference shares unchanged at 34. Brokers felt the interest had been stimulated by a media report that Fletcher Forests and Carter Holt Harvey could mount a joint bid for the troubled Central North Island Forestry Partnership.

Such a proposal could result in a separate forest holding company with up to 350,000ha of forestry land.

Telecom led the turnover by value, worth $1.8 million. Total turnover was 9.98 million with a value of $11.9 million.

Telecom shares nudged up 2c to 531, and Telstra shares rose 1c to 600.

On Wall Street last night, stocks drifted lower as more companies indicated that tough times would continue for at least another quarter.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 14.95, or 0.1 per cent, its second straight down session, while the technology-rich Nasdaq index fell 11.23 to 2,017.84.

However several economic reports which could influence trade were due out today, including personal income for June and consumer confidence for July.

In other movements, Auckland International Airport was down 4c to 346; Air New Zealand A shares fluttered back to 110, while its B shares remained unchanged at 134; Baycorp was down 26c to 1200; Contact was down 1c at 329; Sky City was down 2 at 1140; and The Warehouse was down 4c 563.

Rubicon, a Fletcher Challenge spinoff which began a share buy-back scheme yesterday, was up 1c to 81.

So far there have been 28 rises and 38 falls from 113 stocks traded.

- NZPA