NZ stocks: Telecom restrains market

The sharemarket was restrained today by a 3 cent fall to 580 in market leader Telecom.

The company has suffering bad publicity from a botched discount promotion which may end costing millions more than planned. The stock may also be experiencing some profit taking following a strong run in recent weeks, brokers said.

The benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was up 0.61 points at 2509.10 at 11.30am and the NZSX-40 capital index was up 0.92 to 2287.92.

Shares in home and sports goods retailer Briscoe Group iniitally firmed 3c to 158 but then fell back to 155, down 1c on yesterday's close, after a slightly better than forecast annual profit result.

They have fallen from $2.28 a year earlier but are up from $1.40 earlier this month in the aftermath of the profit warning.

Goldman Sachs JBWere broker Murray Rutherford said the market had been girding for a disappointing result and if anything was relieved.

Briscoe shares had been under pressure last month after its last quarter sales report and a warning last month that its pre-tax profit would be 4 per cent below the 2003 result.

In the event, the bottom line was flat at $23.6 million while the pre-tax operating surplus rose to $35.89 million from $34.95 million.

Rival retailer The Warehouse fell 4c to 440 while Hallenstein Glasson was down 3c to 277.

New listing, Oceana Gold Ltd, was unchanged on 108 its debut yesterday in line with its issue price.

The new company holds the assets of GRD Macraes Ltd and will develop the Reefton gold project on the West Coast and the Fraser underground mine at Macraes' gold project in Otago.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare continued its rise since announcing its new product line this week. It rose 12c to 1172.

Forestry company Tenon head shares and options were each up 4c to 136 and 137 respectively. The company made a presention in Australia yesterday which Mr Rutherford said had reignited interest.

Auckland Airport rose 5c to 655 on news of a pickup passenger numbers from Japan.

Independent Newspapers was up 5c to 480 but on what was described as a "rogue trade" on very small volume.

There were few other moves of note. Cavalier was down 3c to 490 and Fletcher Building down 3c to 432.

On the positive, Baycorp Advantage was up 7c to 310, Sky City was up 6c to 442, Tourism Holdings up 4c to 155 and Steel & Tube was up 4c to 386.

There were 39 stocks up and 20 down among the 116 traded. Turnover was 10 million shares worth $31.7 million of which $14.6 million was in Telecom.

US stocks partially rebounded from earlier losses after reports that Pakistani soldiers surrounded Osama bin Laden's top aide, Ayman al-Zawahiri, near the Afghan border eased investor concerns about terrorism.

The S&P 500 shed 1.44, or 0.1 per cent, to 1122.31, after falling as much as 0.9 per cent.

The Nasdaq, which gets 40 per cent of its value from technology companies, dropped 14.32, or 0.7 per cent, to 1962.44. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 4.52 to 10,295.78. It was the first decline for the three benchmarks in three days.

- NZPA