Telecom leads stocks down in thin trade

The sharemarket opened down some 1 per cent yesterday and stayed there in quiet trade, led lower by Telecom.

"The market did small-range trading on the day ... It closed down 22 points, there were very similar moves in Australia ," said Nigel Scott, at ABN Amro.

Of the 22.06-point, or 1.04 per cent, fall by the NZSE-40 capital index to 2101.79, Telecom accounted for half, or 11 points, shedding 15c to 730. Retreaters outnumbered gainers by 58 to 44 among the 150 stocks traded.

Fletcher Challenge Energy, which traded most of the day down 18c to 20c, finished off 28c at 710, with $9.5 million worth of shares traded.

"Obviously people were just trying to complete the odd order in a thin market," Mr Scott said.

Yesterday it was reported that Shell oil executives were in New Zealand talking to Fletcher Energy in preparation for a bid.

The Warehouse was 15c or 2.6 per cent lower at 560, having gained 5c on Friday on good volume.

Mr Scott said on-market flows, at $55 million out of a total $85 million, were around the lowest seen for some time.

"There were not too many stocks into the positive on any volume. The currency is steady, nothing has really changed and we are not getting any leads from Australia at the moment."

US stocks slumped on Friday after earnings warnings from two high-tech heavyweights battered the tech sector, spurring investors to cash in their chips after Thursday's solid rally.

The Dow Jones index ended down 110.31 points, or 1.02 per cent, to 10,733.56, after climbing 148 points on Thursday to its highest close since mid-May. The Nasdaq tumbled 90.11 points, or 2.15 per cent, to 4094.45.

Locally Carter Holt Harvey added 1c to 186, while of the other Fletcher stocks Forests added 1c to 85, and Building and Paper both lost 1c to 246 and 248, respectively.

Contact Energy lost 5c to 290, and Air New Zealand retreated with its A ordinaries off 2c at 184 and its B shares 8c at 235. Brierley Investments fell 2c to 36. INL dropped 10c to 380, and Sky TV , 2c to 410.

Among the gainers, Fisher & Paykel grew 5c to 725, AMP, 22c to $22.37, and Lion Nathan, 1c to 485.

GDC Communications was again a stand-out among the smaller stocks, jumping 25c to 430 for a more than 26 per cent gain in four trading days. Strathmore Group rose 2c to 32 after announcing it planned to buy back 15 per cent of its shares.

Smaller companies were a touch softer with their capital index down 7.30 points, or 0.14 of a per cent, at 5295.28.

- NZPA