NZ stocks: Market slides for seventh session

The start of a new quarter failed to interrupt the sharemarket's slide as it headed south for the seventh straight session in morning trading today.

However, the bear's grip on the market was loosened late morning when Ports of Auckland said it had received an $8/share takeover offer from its 80 per cent shareholder, Auckland Regional Holdings.

Ports of Auckland were already up 10c to 655 against the market before the offer and were still in hold mode.

Port of Tauranga shares were up 28c to 520 on the news.

Carpet maker Feltex fell a third, or 48c to 102 after the company issued a profit warning. It said today its full year profit forecast could be up to $9 million below previous forecasts due to a tougher sales environment in Australia and New Zealand. Net profit after tax is now projected to be between $15m and $16m for the year ending June 30, 2005.

Fellow carpet maker Cavalier initially caught Feltex's flu, dropping 15c to 365, but later recovered its losses.

This year's market darling Fletcher Building fell 14c to a two-month low 648 on heavy turnover worth $6m. Brokers said it was affected by the same sorts of issues as Feltex -- slower housing markets in Australia and New Zealand, the strong New Zealand dollar and fierce competition.

Others in the building products sector were affected. Tenon fell 9c to 410 and Nuplex fell 7c to 490. However, Steel & Tube jumped 6c to 450 against the trend and Carter Holt Harvey recovered from early weakness to be up 1c at 198.

The benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was down 9.97 points to 3029.11 at 11.45am while the NZSX-All capital index was down 4.64 points to 977.88.

The market has now lost 6.8 per cent from its peak on March 9, just before the Reserve Bank's latest hike of interest rates.

Bellwether stock Telecom fell from 2c to 604. Its turnover was worth $25m against the market's total of $61.4m.

There was heavy turnover in a number of the top 10 stocks in what appeared to be a portfolio wind-up. Sky City was down 1c to 491 on volume of $4.5m.

Discount retailer, The Warehouse, was down 5c to 392 on heavy volume worth over $5m while Hallenstein Glasson was down 6c to 390.

Freight firms, likely to hit by the new petrol tax were down. Mainfreight was off 5c to 260 while Freightways fell 4c to 295.

Ryman Healthcare continued to wind an erratic path, falling 8c today 489.

Falls were double the 27 rises among the 124 stocks traded.

The New Zealand market got no help from Wall Street where stocks slipped as oil prices surged and insurer American International Group dropped 3 per cent after losing a prestigious credit rating.

High oil prices generally hurt equities because they squeeze corporate profit margins and curb consumer spending.

- NZPA