NZ stocks: Sharemarket stays in wait-and-see mode

12.46 pm

Following on from Thursday's lower close, the New Zealand sharemarket opened weaker and extremely quiet today after poor showings on world markets overnight.

All the major ones closed with double or three-figure losses after more profit warnings followed Marconi's bombshell on Wednesday when it announced profits would be halved this year. Marconi's United States-traded shares dropped 52 per cent and slumped 54.1 per cent in London.

"Our market was pretty quiet at the opening," James Snell at Credit Suisse First Boston said.

"Some of the profit warnings around and crucial non-farm payrolls numbers tonight have put people in a wait-and-see mode going into the weekend," he said.

At 11am the NZSE-40 index stood at 2044.75 - down 2.46 points, or 0.12 per cent from last night's close.

The NZSE-SCI capital index was 14.88 points - or 0.27 per cent - lower, at 5509.63.

Turnover at 11am was 13.29 million shares worth $48.66 million, of which Fletcher Building accounted for $12.29 million, Telecom $2.69 million, Fisher and Paykel $2.49 million and Baycorp $1.99 million.

Falls outnumbered rises by 40 to 25 of the 117 shares traded.

Fletcher Building rose 3c to 250 and was topping turnover with 4.91 million shares and Fletcher Forests was unchanged at 30. It is preparing a $2.1 billion joint-venture bid for the Central North Island Forestry Partnership, the National Business Review reported today, quoting unnamed market sources.

Fletcher Forests spokeswoman Jacqui Millar told NZPA the company was considering a bid.

Market heavyweight Telecom - which has a 22 per cent weighting in the Top 40 index - was a cent lower at 534 and Telstra was 10c weaker at 650 on turnover of 110,900 shares.

Auckland International Airport was a cent lighter at 350 to continue with its losses earlier in the week.

Lion Nathan gained a cent to 552 and Montana Group rose 8c to 464. Legal skirmishing between Allied Domecq and Lion Nathan - rivals for control of Montana - escalated yesterday when Allied accused Lion of again breaching listing rules.

Forestry and biotechnology firm, Rubicon, which listed on the exchange in March, hit a record 75 earlier in the week but was down to 72.

Contact Energy rose 4c to 312, on turnover of 345,374 shares worth $1.07 million and power company, Trustpower was steady at 320.

Tranz Rail was unchanged at 400, compared with a 2001 high of 428 in March and a low of 350 in June. It was untraded on Wall Street on Thursday.

Casino operator, Sky City rose a couple of cents to 1105, Natural Gas Corp was a cent lower at 93, WestpacTrust shed 30c to 1540, Air NZ's domestic A shares were a cent higher at 106 and the freely held B shares were 2c lower at 145.

Fisher and Paykel was unchanged at 2000 and Brierley Investments dropped a cent to 67.

Meat exporter Richmond was steady at 240, pay TV operator Sky TV was 5c higher at 330, part owner Independent Newspapers was steady at 380 and wood-products firm Carter Holt Harvey lost 3c to 175.

The Warehouse dropped 3c to 536, Waste Management was 9c lighter at 345, drinks company Frucor rose 5c to 155, financial-services company Tower was 4c lower at 531, AMP lost 20c to 2570 and Baycorp was unchanged at 1231.

Stocks slumped on Wall Street on Thursday - one of the lightest trading days of the year - when investors returned from the United States Independence Day holiday to be hit by another round of corporate-earnings' warnings.

The tech-rich Nasdaq composite index slid 60.69 points - or 2.83 per cent - to 2080.11, the blue-chip Dow Jones average index of 30 industrials fell 91.25 points - or 0.86 per cent - to 10,479.86 and the broader Standard and Poor's 500 composite index shed 15.21 points - or 1.23 per cent - to 1219.24.

- NZPA