NZ stocks: Shares trade sideways

12.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket was trading sideways on light volume this morning as the holiday-shortened week draws to a close.

The benchmark NZSE-40 index was 1.20 points higher at 2072.08 by just after 11am on turnover worth $21 million.

"It's a bit of a mixture here today," ABN Amro Craigs retail equities adviser Nigel Scott said.

"None of the leaders have really changed much at all and in a short week you've had lowish volumes."

Offshore markets were providing few leads, he said.

"The overseas markets have been pretty sloppy this week. The European telcos have been quiet, the European banks have been worrying about the Kirch media scenario and overall the markets are probably still hanging on what's happening in the Middle East."

This week's standout performer Briscoe Group fell victim to a spot of profit taking this morning, shedding 4c to 215.

Another retail favourite, the Warehouse, was a cent stronger at 746 -- just short of new highs around 755 touched earlier in the week.

Market leader Telecom was up 2c at 494 as investors shrugged off speculation the telco may write down the value of its Australian subsidiary AAPT.

Number two stock Carter Holt Harvey was steady at 190.

Hallenstein Glasson slid 18c to 265 after posting a 2.7 per cent drop in its February half-year profit to $5.8 million. The company blamed the drop on below forecast sales across the Tasman.

Fletcher Building added 2c to 279, Auckland International Airport was steady at 432, Sky City was a cent lower at 564, Baycorp Advantage fell 10c to 585, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 9c at 990 and Fisher & Paykel Appliances was steady at 940.

Tranz Rail fell 5c to 403 after a media report raised questions about the rail operator's "worrying cocktail of overvalued assets and shrinking profits".

The National Business Review, in its 'Shoeshine' column, said brokers' bullish forecasts for the stock were not matched by recent credit rating downgrades.

Analysts at ABN Amro, Credit Suisse First Boston, JB Were, Macquarie Equities, Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg all rate the stock a "buy" or equivalent, despite last month's decision by ratings agency Moody's Investor Services to cut its outlook on Tranz Rail's debt to negative from stable.

Among smaller stocks, fishing company Sanford continued to yo-yo following yesterday's selloff after a large parcel of shares changed hands at the discount rate of $5.50. The stock recovered most of yesterday's 36c loss to trade up 30c at 580 early in the session, but then plunged back to 550 by late morning.

Falls narrowly outnumbered rises by 25 to 21 among the 104 stocks traded so far.

In the United States stocks rose slightly on Thursday as investors moved to the relative safety of consumer and industrial companies while abandoning software and drug shares, with the pharmaceutical exodus spurred by a profit warning from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 36.88 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 10,235.17, according to the latest data, while the Nasdaq composite added 5.40 points, or 0.30 per cent, to 1789.75. The broad Standard & Poor's 500 edged up 0.94 of a point to 1126.34.

- NZPA