NZ stocks: Subdued day on market with no stand-outs

The New Zealand sharemarket turned in a subdued performance today, barely retreating on the fresh five year highs it reached yesterday.

At 5pm in Wellington, the benchmark NZSX-50 was down 3.44 points at 2298.78, while the NZSX-40 capital index was down 3.42 points at 2201.84.

Market heavyweight Telecom finished up 1c at 507, having traded $4.5 million worth of stocks on volume of 794,717.

On the New Zealand Exchange today, there was $72 million worth of shares traded on volume of 32 million. Among the 143 stocks traded there were 45 falls and 61 rises.

ABN Amro Craigs operator Matt Willis said "bits and pieces trading" riddled today's session.

There were no stand-out performers.

"I suppose stocks going backwards aren't following the market trend and you'd tend to ask why that might be," Mr Willis told NZPA today.

"Once again the market held its own if nothing else... but there was a bit of profit taking in the retail stocks, which have had a hell of a good run of late."

That The Warehouse finished down 13c at 585 was an indiction of profit taking, Mr Willis said.

"The Warehouse has had an incredible run after being drastically oversold to the lower 500 cents area," Mr Willis said, adding the shares in the discount chain were at a fair value now.

Fletcher Forests finished unchanged on 129 ahead of the announcement expected this week of the successful bid for its forests estate.

Kiwi Forests has launched a $725 million cash bid for the estate, beating its Oregon-based rival The Campbell Group by $23 million, including a $17 million break fee if Fletcher Forests ends negotiations with Campbell.

Shares on the slide today included: Fletcher Building down 2c at 426, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 19c at 1280, Nuplex down 10c at 415, Sky TV down 5c at 485, Baycorp Advantage down 1c at 259, and F&P Appliances down 10c at 1475.

Among those on the rise were: Auckland International Airport up 4c at 651, Cavalier Corporation up 6c at 546, Port of Tauranga up 5c at 425, Tranz Rail up 1c at 110, Carter Holt Harvey up 1c at 180, Ports of Auckland up 14c at 835, Restaurant Brands up 5c at 130, and TrustPower up 5c at 503.

Overseas, on Wall St, where stocks closed higher for the fourth session in a row, the Dow Jones industrial average added 22.67 points to 9594.98; the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 4.5 points to 1034.35; and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 12.89 points at 1893.46.

In London, the FTSE-100 share index ended down 3.9 points at 4270.1 points.

- NZPA