NZ stocks: Telecom leads market down in early trading

12.00pm

A dip in Telecom's share price led the sharemarket down in early trading this morning.

At 11.30am the benchmark NZSX-50 gross benchmark was down 3.26 points at 2663.49 while the NZSX-All capital index was down 1.15 points at 893.79.

Telecom set the tone, down 4c at 580 at 11.30am. The bellwether stock's $17.3 million worth of turnover accounted for just under half of the market's total turnover of $25.4 million.

Of the 120 stocks traded by 11.30am there were 44 rises and 27 falls.

Air New Zealand was unchanged at 40c, in the lead up to a briefing to be held at 1pm in Auckland today, where details of its plans to refurbish its fleet are likely to be announced.

Stock exchange operator NZX was up 5c at 855, after saying on Friday it was considering selling the naming rights to the sharemarket's key indices.

It was a mixed bag for energy stocks this morning, with Contact Energy unchanged at 572, Powerco down 1c at 208, but TrustPower up 10c at 450 and Genesis up 4c at 74c.

Meat company Richmond jumped 15c, or 4.92 per cent, to 320, on the back of a profit upgrade. The company said it expects its pre-tax profit for the year ending September to be in the region of $39 million, up from $20 million posted last year.

Wrightson was down 12c at 141, after going ex-dividend 9 cents.

Other stocks on the move by 10.10am included: Affco up 4c at 38, Infratil up 4c at 308, Restaurant Brands up 3c at 124, Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 4c at 444, Turners Auctions down 5c at 525 and Williams & Kettle up 8c at 295.

- NZPA