NZ stocks: Telecom slip puts market on negative bent

6.40pm


The New Zealand sharemarket drifted through today's session with a negative bent thanks to a slip in the share price of market heavyweight Telecom, a broker said.

At 5pm, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 7.45 points at 2362.00, while the NZSX-40 capital index was down 5.04 points at 2207.72.

There was $82 million worth of shares traded on volume of 28.5 million.

Among the 143 stocks traded were 50 rises and 47 falls.

Greenslades broker Paul Valk said Telecom finishing the day down 7c at 512 put a negative slant on the boards, particularly the NZSX-50.

There was nearly $26 million worth of Telecom shares traded on volume of 5 million.

The Warehouse Group experienced a small rebound in its shares, which finished up 10c at 512 after having spiralled downward from 551 since Thursday last week.

On Friday last week the company said its poor-performing Australian companies were taking longer to turn around than expected.

"People see it as an opportune time to invest (in The Warehouse)," Mr Valk told NZPA today.

Greenslades valued the company's shares at about $6 each, with the New Zealand unit accounting for most of that.

Meanwhile, bank shares rose today, ANZ Bank closing up 41c at 1921 and Westpac Bank up 30c at 1660.

The surge in bank shares came after the Reserve Bank of Australia this morning bumped its official cash rate (OCR) up 25 basis points to 5.25 per cent, its second upward move in two months.

Banking analyst David McDonald, of Australian broking firm Shaw Stockbroking, said the banking sector had been oversold in the past couple of months.

People in Australia were getting increasingly used to interest rate rises, which often prompted investors to sell banks stocks lower, he said.

"Given that there's only one or two rate rises to come in theory in the next six months or so, the pressure on the banks is... pretty much factored into the market," he said.

"So now's the time to take advantage of some of the weakness... there's some good solid value in the sector at the moment."

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is reviewing its OCR tomorrow, but the market is split as to whether the bank will lift it beyond its current 5.0 per cent or leave it as is.

Shares on the rise today included: AMP up 2c at 665, Cavalier up 3c at 558, Fletcher Building up 2c at 395, Tourism Holdings up 2c at 145, Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 5c at 385, F&P Healthcare up 4c at 1188, Hellaby up 6c at 496, Michael Hill International up 12c at 480, Sky City up 5c at 460, and Sky Network TV up 5c at 525.

Among those on the slide were: Auckland International Airport down 5c at 665, Independent Newspapers Ltd down 5c at 505, Ports of Auckland down 5c at 805, Restaurant Brands down 2c at 108, Baycorp Advantage down 3c at 289, and Wrightson down 3c at 131.

There was nearly $36,300 worth of stock traded on the New Zealand Alternative Exchange today.

Offshore, the Dow Jones was down 35.76 points at 9863.29, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 2.41 points at 1067.71, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 4.85 points at 1984.97.

- NZPA