NZ stocks: Sharemarket pauses for breath

6.06pm

The sharemarket paused for breath today with the top 50 index closing flat and few stocks standing out.

"The market was quiet and softer -- there was no particular news and you just saw a little profit taking in stocks that have had pretty good runs of late," UBS Warburg broker Richard Leggat said.

The NZSX-50 gross index closed up 0.23 points at 2854.97, while the NZSX all capital index finished 0.05 lower at 949.35.

Market leader Telecom closed up 1c at 599 on turnover worth $25 million. Yesterday, chief executive Theresa Gattung told shareholders at Telecom's annual meeting, the telco's dividend plan was to pay out 85 percent of profits and the company was sticking with that.

Auckland Airport, lately held back because of concerns Whenuapai airport would get the go ahead to operate commercially, was one of the better performers, rising 6c to 718.

APN News rose 17c to 502 but Mr Leggat said that was largely the result of yesterday's mis-pricing. He said the stock price was set in Australia and that was down a couple of cents.

Tenon was marked back following its good recent performance. The head shares fell 4c to 214 and the prefs dropped 7c to 213.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare extended yesterday's losses, falling 6c to 292. The company has drifted down on reports sleep apnoea products could not be sold over the counter in the US.

The news had affected rivals and was now hitting Fisher & Paykel Healthcare itself, according to ASB Securities broker Stephen Wright said.

Others in the profit-taking category included Infratil, down 8c to 315, GPG down 2c to 213, Promina, down 6c to 485, Rubicon down 4c to 98c and TrustPower, down 14c to 485.

One of this year's better performers, Freightways, fell 7c to 260 on news that Toll plans to muscle into its courier and express freight business. Toll closed up 1c at 266.

There was still healthy turnover in Powerco with $13m worth of stock changing hands. It closed unchanged on 212.

Contact Energy had a good session with a 6c gain to 604. Problems with one of the three Cook Strait power cables are likely to result in higher prices for Contact.

Air New Zealand fell 2c to 160 as concerns about the price of fuel continued to weigh on the stock.

Tower was still finding support, with the stock rising 1c to 224.

On the flip side, tightly held stock New Zealand Refining Co raced 275 higher to a seven year high of 2500 on rising oil prices.

Rarely traded Finmedia rose 13c to 138 on very slim turnover of just 500 shares.

The small stocks index made new highs, rising 20.11 points to 7809.06 while the top 10 index rose 2.48 to 1136.74.

In all, there were 57 stocks up and 55 down among the 156 traded. There were 33.4m shares traded worth $92.6m.

- NZPA