NZ stocks: Sharemarket drifts lower

12.30pm

The sharemarket drifted lower in featureless trading today.

By late morning the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was down 8.91 points at 2148.13 points while the NZSX-40 capital index was down 0.41 per cent at 2088.47.

Turnover of 6.97 million stocks, valued at $29.78 million, was dominated by Telecom's $18.72 million worth of shares traded.

Wall Street provided no clear steer, although United States stocks ended higher.

The Nasdaq rose to a nearly 15-month high as investors viewed a wave of merger activity as evidence of an economic upswing, and bet on strong results in corporate America's quarterly earnings reporting season.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 6.3 points at 9223.09. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 3.42 points to 1007.84, and the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index gained 25.75 points, or 1.5 per cent, to 1746.46 -- its highest close since April 22, 2002.

Market leader Telecom, which today announced it had employed former Warehouse chief executive Greg Muir to revitalise its retail brands, was steady on 510.

Exporters Cavalier and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare were down, possibly due to the strong kiwi, the former by 10c to 460 and the latter by 15c to 1150. F&P Appliances was down 10c at 1285.

Carter Holt Harvey lost 2c to 174, Fletcher Building fell 2c to 364, Lion Nathan fell 6c to 610, Contact Energy was down 3c at 472, and casino company Sky City lost 20c to 885, on tiny volume of 52,800 stocks.

News that Restaurant Brands' chief executive Jim Collier will quit in August sent its stock down 4c to 135 yesterday, but the fast food operator rebounded today to 136.

Tranz Rail was steady at 94 cents, NZX gained 6c to 461, and Tower, which has risen 13 per cent in the last two days, rose another 1c to 174 today. It has risen 20c over three days.

Banking stocks, which tumbled in Australia yesterday, had a mixed session on this side of the Tasman this morning, with ANZ Bank down 40c to 2101, and Westpac up 2c at 1730.

There were 35 falls and 26 rises on the 111 stocks traded.

- NZPA