NZ stocks: Thanksgiving keeps market quiet

12.00 pm

The sharemarket was headed for a quiet day's trading, thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.

Just after 11am the NZSE-40 capital index had slumped six points to 2014.95 on the back of a healthy $48.5 million turnover.

But Murray Rutherford, senior institutional adviser with JB Were, said much of this was due to overnight trade in the US where Telecom and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, both listed on the Nasdaq, did brisk pre-market trade.

F&P Healthcare accounted for just under the total turnover, most of the shares trading for 1650 overnight. It was steady at 1640 on the New Zealand market this morning.

Market leader Telecom was down 2c to 490 on the back of $9.9 million worth of shares.

With little to drive the market, the extension of the Frucor bid was major news. It was down 2c to 235, the same amount offered by French beverage giant Groupe Danone.

Others to fall included Steel & Tube down 7c to 253, Carter Holt Harvey down 3c to 158, Independent News down 10c to 360, and Advantage Group down 1c to 47.

On the upside, Lion Nathan traded up 4c to 540, Contact rose 1c to 394, Sanford was up 10c to 620, and Hellaby was up 2c to 224.

So far falls outweighed the rises by 31 to 27 on 107 stocks traded.

Thanksgiving also kept US investors from serious trading, even with the assistance of positive employment data.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 66.70 points, or 0.67 per cent, to 9,834.68, down for the second session after clambering into bull-market territory on Monday. A bull market is defined as a gain of at least 20 per cent from a recent low.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index eased 5.63 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 1,137.03, while the technology-packed Nasdaq Composite Index fell 5.46 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 1,875.05.

- NZPA