NZ stocks: Shares dip slightly on light turnover

12.00 pm

The New Zealand sharemarket eased slightly on light turnover this morning as most investors prepared to shut up shop for the festive season.

The benchmark NZSE-40 index was down 1.13 points at 2027.40 shortly after 11am today, on turnover worth just $10.6 million.

"It is pretty quiet. It is virtually the last day of trading before the Christmas break, although we do trade half a day on Monday," Forsyth Barr Frater Williams broker Alan Wills said.

There were few features in the market, he said, and the bourse would likely track lower throughout the day in line with weaker offshore markets.

Among the top stocks, market bellwether Telecom was down 3c at 490, Sky City slipped 4c to 614, BaycorpAdvantage eased 5c to 740 and Fletcher Building was down 5c at 285.

Yesterday's big loser, Auckland Airport, recovered slightly in morning trade, adding 6c to 365.

"They got sold off pretty heavily yesterday, presumably people who got stuck in the (Changi Enterprises) placement and were reacting to the fact that Auckland City Council were looking to sell their holding," Mr Wills said.

Other stocks to gain ground this morning included Briscoes, up 3c at 155, INL, up a cent at 361, Carter Holt Harvey, up 2c at 165 and Mainfreight, up 4c at 150.

The Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Appliance stocks both eased 5c to 1690 and 1040 respectively, while Air New Zealand B shares slipped a cent to 33c and its A shares were steady at 33c on their last day of trading as separate classes.

In all, falls outnumbered rises by 39 to 32 among the 102 stocks traded so far.

Local GDP growth and trade figures, released this morning, had little impact on the market.

The data showed New Zealand grew by 0.2 per cent in the September quarter -- bang on economists' expectations, but much weaker than the 1.8 per cent rate recorded in the June quarter.

Meanwhile, New Zealand posted a larger than expected preliminary trade deficit of $351 million for the month of November.

"I think the market is assuming that the economy here is holding up okay and that it is quite a good environment for equities," Mr Wills said.

That view was supported by the WestpacTrust McDermott Miller Consumer Confidence Index, released overnight, showing consumer confidence was holding up despite retailers facing a soggy Christmas season.

The major issue for equity markets going into next year was whether the US economy and other key markets were going to recover from their current weak economic positions, Mr Wills said.

In the US overnight, stocks fell after Juniper Networks Inc and Jabil Circuit Inc lowered profit forecasts, quashing optimism for a rebound in demand for telecommunications gear that helped drive the Nasdaq Composite Index up 36 per cent the past three months.

The Nasdaq declined 57.08, or 2.9 per cent, to 1925.81, led by Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 8.28, or 0.7 per cent, to 1141.28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 72.03, or 0.7 per cent, to 9998.46.

- NZPA