NZ stocks: Telecom reverses charge on negative day

It was Telecom against the rest yesterday with the market giant the only top 10 stock to make a gain, Deutsche Securities dealer Shane Gavegan said.

After plummeting 32c on Monday, Telecom gained 15c to 595 on turnover of 5.2 million shares worth $30.5 million.

"It got sold off pretty heavy, but Monday's moves were exaggerated by a lack of liquidity," said Mr Gavegan.

But it was all alone on the positive side of the top 10 ledger, with Fletcher Energy falling hard, down 40c to 817.

There was increasing speculation in the market that the Commerce Commission would reject Shell's bid to take over Fletcher Energy, Mr Gavegan said.

"There's a little bit of nervousness in the market."

Among the other top stocks, The Warehouse came off 15c to 575, while Tower and INL both fell 10c to 500 and 345, respectively. Fletcher Building was down 4c at 239 and Forests was 1c lower at 80, while Auckland Airport weakened 3c to 267 and Carter Holt Harvey was down 1c to 161.

Fisher & Paykel, Contact and Sky TV were all unchanged at 725, 262 and 345, respectively.

Fletcher Building and Carter Holt Harvey had both been influenced by weaker-than-expected Australian construction data out yesterday, Mr Gavegan said.

"And there's a little bit of negative sentiment," he said.

Elsewhere on the market, Baycorp was down 10c at 1170, Tranz Rail dropped 8c to 377, while Montana was 7c weaker at 310.

Air New Zealand Bs were 6c lower at 280 while A shares managed a 1c gain to 187.

Among the other few stocks to gain ground, Frucor was up 7c at 228 while Lion Nathan and Advantage both rose 5c to 485 and 201, respectively.

The weakness among the leading stocks led the NZSE-40 Capital Index 2.83 points lower to 1979.82. Turnover totalled $97.4 million, with falls outnumbering rises 56 to 38 among the 149 stocks traded.

- NZPA