NZ stocks: Shares tread water following US rate cut

6.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket traded sideways today as investors responded to the double-edged sword of a larger-than-expected rate cut in the United States yesterday.

"Any rate cut is normally good for equities," JB Were senior investment adviser Peter Stokes said.

"But the fact that it was so large raises questions about the state of the US economy. So you get a bit of push and pull."

The benchmark NZSE-40 capital index ended 0.17 of a point higher at 1956.36 on shares worth $65.38 million, but was still hovering around a 12 month low.

"It felt like one of those days where order flow pretty much determined where this market was going," Mr Stokes said.

Top stock Telecom, under political pressure due to its new charging policies for rural lines, was whippy -- initially trading down 5c, but closing 5c higher at 482 on shares worth $24.8 million.

Another stock under the hammer this week, Tower, fell a further 15c to 175.

Fisher and Paykel Appliances closed flat at 1085 despite living up to its promise of a strong September half year result, reporting a $34 million net profit today.

Its sister stock, F&P Healthcare eased 5c to 1075 after posting a jump in half year profit by nearly a third to $33.807 million yesterday.

Both stocks had rallied strongly in recent weeks in anticipation of the good results.

Meat company Richmond rallied 30c to 200 despite announcing an after tax loss for the year to September of $6.46 million compared with a $20.65 million profit in the previous year.

Rail operator Tranz Rail closed down 15c to a fresh all time low of $1.22 after announcing the details of its rights issue.

Tranz Rail will raise $66 million by issuing five rights shares at 75c each for every seven shares already held.

Half the net proceeds will be used to support a letter of credit to the leaseholders of the Aratere ferry and the remaining 50 per cent used to repay bank debt.

Tranz Rail has lost 73 per cent of its value from $4.50 a year ago.

In other moves Carter Holt Harvey added 2c to 170, Auckland Airport rose a cent to 506, Baycorp Advantage was up 6c at 330, Contact eased 2c to 375, Fletcher Building added 4c to 304, INL was down 6c to 299, Lion Nathan slipped a cent to 604 and Sky City added 3c to 763.

There were 49 falls and 30 rises among the 128 stocks traded.

- NZPA