NZ stocks: Shares drift in lead-up to Christmas

12.10pm

Pre-Christmas lethargy hit the sharemarket in earnest today as the top 40 index dipped towards last week's 14-month low.

Just after 11am the benchmark NZSE-40 capital index dropped 11.69 points to 1910.82, a fall of 0.61 per cent. Turnover was a light $9.7 million.

On Friday the index slunk to 1903.72 -- its lowest point since October 2001.

"A lot of stocks haven't even moved from Friday's close but it's got a downward trend to it," said Peter Stokes, a senior investment adviser with JB Were.

"There's probably a wee bit of squaring off of the books from this week onwards for investors as they start to shut down, and in the absence of any sort of major catalyst or external shock...I think our market's just going to trade in a narrow, defined range."

The big mover of the morning was Contact Energy, which fell 19c to 380. Most of the fall was attributed to low volume and a 15c dividend payout.

Market leader Telecom was the most actively traded share, touching a fresh year low of 435 before settling at 438, down 6c. Turnover was light at $2.1 million.

Telecom was "struggling to find a level which is attracting support" as investors mulled over a recent profit warning.

Goodman Fielder shares came off 6c to 200, after jumping 41c on Friday when Australian ingredients maker Burns Philp, controlled by New Zealander Graeme Hart, made a takeover bid for the Australian food giant.

Other stocks included Auckland Airport, steady at 547. Air NZ was down a cent to 51, Westpac down 15c to 1445, AMP down 25c to 1275 and ANZ tumbled 60c to 1895.

ANZ warned on Friday that its fiscal 2003 target of 10 per cent growth was be a stretch following below-target trading in the last two months, but said it was comfortable with analysts' forecasts.

Analysts -- who were predicting 8 per cent to 9 per cent growth -- are wary of ANZ's exposure to troubled US energy companies.

On the upside, Tower stocks were up 5c to 174, the Warehouse rose 4c to 710, INL jumped 5c to 300, Restaurant Brands was up 3c to 148, and Michael Hill was up 5c to 610.

So far falls outnumber rises by 30 to 20 on 98 stocks traded.

- NZPA