NZ stocks: Telecom leads market down

Market leader Telecom led the market down today for its third consecutive fall.

The top stock shed 6c yesterday and today at 11.35am it was off another 3c to 587. Brokers said it was more a case of profit taking rather than negative sentiment, following Telecom's good run up earlier in the month.

The NZSX-50 was down 6.74 points to 2900.15, while the NZSX-All capital index was down 1.85 points at 958.25.

Completing a mixed start for the market's top three stocks, Carter Holt Harvey was unchanged at 216 after yesterday 3c fall and Contact Energy was up at 627.

Telecom's turnover was dominant as usual, with $21.3 million of the market's total turnover of $31.9m.

Fletcher Building was another top stock to run into profit taking. It was initially down 4c to 585 but later recovered to 588.

Financial services group Tower was down 3c to 227 after reporting a $54.6m full year net profit against a $149m loss a year earlier. It said it would not pay a dividend but consider resuming payments during the current financial year.

Seldom traded minnow Finzsoft was up 9c to 85c on a 24,000 shares traded.

ANZ Bank was down 20c to 2200 while Westpac NZ was up 4c to 2005.

Other stocks on the move by 11.35am included: Telstra, down 6c to 512, Sky TV down 3c to 574 and Axa down 3c to 435.

Twenty-eight stocks were up against 28 down among the 125 stocks traded.

- NZPA