Profit-taking on Energy hurts leaders

Trading on the New Zealand sharemarket was very light yesterday, and Salomon Smith Barney dealer Belinda Stanley predicts the distraction of the Olympics will keep it that way.

"There was a real lack of participants in the market, and it could stay that way while the Olympics are on," Mrs Stanley said.

Credit Suisse First Boston director Scott St John agreed: "The Olympics are looming and, believe it or not, that has an influence on the markets."

The NZSE-40 Capital Index fell 25.30 points (1.22 per cent) to 2055.22, while the NZSE-SCI weakened 6.35 (0.12 per cent) to 5371.96.

Falls outnumbered rises 56 to 41 in yesterday's trade, and turnover was a lower-than-usual $66.6 million.

Market leader Telecom accounted for much of the weakness. It was down 13c to 637 on turnover of 1.7 million shares worth $11.03 million.

Telecom's fall could relate to concerns about the company's earnings, but the telecommunications sector as a whole was weak, Mrs Stanley said.

Telstra also dropped yesterday, closing 15c down at 800.

Fletcher Energy, which has rocketed up in recent months, fell 18c to 892 after gaining 25c on Thursday.

"There was a some profit-taking coming through in Fletcher Energy," said Mrs Stanley. "It's been running pretty hard recently,"

Fletcher Building gained 4c to 236 but Fletcher Forests and fellow forestry stock Carter Holt Harvey each lost 3c to close at 82 and 174 respectively.

Among the top 10 stocks, The Warehouse and INL each dropped 10c to 590 and 370 respectively, and Sky TV suffered an 18c blow, closing down at 347.

Axa dropped 12c to 350, Baycorp was down 5c at 1295, Fisher and Paykel was 4c weaker at 736 and Lion Nathan fell 3c to 475.

On the positive side of the ledger, Auckland Airport rose 10c to 292, Tower was up 9c at 539, and Tranz Rail gained 6c to 396.

- NZPA