NZ stocks: Telecom sell-off dominates sharemarket trading

Shares of market heavyweight Telecom hit a new three-month low in an otherwise flat sharemarket.

At 5pm, Telecom was down 5c at 489, having sold $25.8 million worth on turnover of 5.3 million.

The benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was down 2.65 points at 2171.97 at 5pm, while the NZSX-40 capital index was down 4.61 points at 2100.70.

Market turnover hit $66.2 million on turnover of 23.7 million.

Macquarie Equities broker David Cleal said Telecom was the main driver behind the market's dip today.

"I assume that relates back to a bit of offshore selling of our market," Mr Cleal told NZPA today.

"When you think about it, the placement in Telecom was done at $3.50 and they've been locking in some fairly good gains on both the currency and the stock," he said.

The stock had seen some weakness before it went ex-dividend.

Among the 135 stocks traded today were 37 rises and 53 falls.

Sky City rose 6c to 913 ahead of what is expected to be a strong result tomorrow while Auckland Airport, which reports its result on Thursday, was down 5c to 619.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 10c to 1220, Promina was up 6c to 292, The Warehouse was unchanged on 491, while Vertex was down 1c to 162.

Other movers today included: AMP up 11c to 535, ANZ Bank down 35c to 1980, Briscoe Group up 4c to 181, Carter Holt Harvey up 3c to 173, Genesis Energy down 5c to 105, Infratil down 3c to 227, Northport up 4c to 310, Ports of Auckland down 10c to 800, Sanford down 4c to 486, and Westpac up 20c to 1690.

The lead from Wall Street on Friday was negative. US stocks sagged, eroding strong gains made earlier last week as investors cashed out after a sharp morning rally sparked by upbeat forecasts from the world's largest microchip maker, Intel Corp.

The Dow Jones industrial average slumped 74.81 points, or 0.79 per cent, to 9348.87, and the S&P 500 Index dropped 10.22 points, or 1.02 per cent, to 993.05. After rallying nearly 2 per cent earlier in the session, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 12.24 points to 1765.31.

- NZPA