NZ stocks: Wall St weakness sets tone for NZ market

12.00pm

Another poor session on Wall Street on Friday set the tone for the New Zealand sharmarket at the start of this week.

"It's a typical quiet Monday," said First New Zealand Capital broker James Snell. "Our market's holding up okay after a pretty good performance in the last couple of weeks."

The NZSE-40 Capital Index was down 19.01 points to 2111.82 on turnover of $23 million at 11.30am.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.85 per cent on Friday to close on its low for the year while the Nasdaq fell 1.6 per cent. Potential international conflicts, US economic concerns and accounting issues continue to dog global sharemarkets.

Mr Snell said international investors were still chasing yield in New Zealand where the market was being helped by the firming currency.

Telecom was down 6c to 514 on volume of $8.6 million. Number two stock, Carter Holt Harvey, was down 7c to 198.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances was down 30c to 930 after shedding 32.5cps in dividends.

Baycorp Advantage resumed its downward path, falling 14c to 410. The New Zealand Herald published an article today about why its share prices had fallen so far this year. A small rival has complained to the Commerce Commission, alleging that Baycorp has abused its dominant market position. Baycorp said it was not worried about the allegation.

Others to fall included AMP, down 25c to 1905, Axa, down 7c to 326, Pacific Retail, down 15c to 315, UnitedNetworks, down 4c to 464 and Westpac NZ, down 3c to 1787.

Infratil was up 1c to 185 despite shedding a 3cps dividend after its two thirds owned Wellington Airport announced a 10 per cent hike in landing fees.

Going against the trend, Blis was up 2c to 52c, Auckland Airport was up 2c to 445, and Scott Technology, up 8c to 210.

There were 44 falls and 20 rises among the 112 stocks traded to date.

- NZPA