NZ shares: Bears retain grip on NZ market

12pm

WELLINGTON - The New Zealand market steadfastly refused to bounce in tandem with markets offshore, and continued to hover around 1-1/2 year lows.

By mid-morning the NZSE-40 capital index was down 0.19 points, or 0.01 per cent, at 1873.68, on turnover of 16.30 million stocks valued at $40.37 million.

Several top-40 stocks opened weaker today after posting positive half-year results yesterday.

Air New Zealand gained 1c to 53 despite falling 1c at the open after it convincingly pulled itself into profit for the first half.

Auckland International Airport also gave up some of its gains, losing 6c to 545 following an 8c rise yesterday on news of its increased profit of $39.7 million.

Trans-Tasman credit services company Baycorp Advantage fell 3c to return to its post-merger low of 112 after disappointing with another loss yesterday, this time a deficit of A$11.9 million ($13.0 million) for the first half.

Sam Macdonald of Direct Broking said companies had been sold down on result announcements before a recovery, particularly in Australia.

"We've seen selling into every result. With market sentiment the way it is, even if the result has been all right, (investors have) still been able to pick the stock back up again.

"If we do see a turnaround it's not going to take much to change sentiment, and stocks like Telecom ... there have been some buyers around. Whenever we've seen some selling volume come into the market, there are some buyers."

Telecom was unchanged at 426, hovering at levels not seen since October 2001.

"The market is very short and we will get a quick bounce, but when that happens and the reasons for that no-one knows, and that's why we will continue to be depressed like this," Mr Macdonald said.

"Some of the stocks that had good results like Waste Management, Sky TV, Independent Newspapers Ltd, they're holding up. But in a normal market Sky TV would be back up at 400 and INL would be a 350.

"We're just in a market where the average investor would rather sit on the sidelines."

INL was was up 5c at 315, Sky TV was unchanged at 350, Waste Management was down 1c at 295, casino operator Sky City tumbled 14c to 871, Tower lost 3c to 202, AMP shed 10c to a new low of 770, and Restaurant Brands was down 10c at 125.

The Warehouse gained 12c to 554, Briscoe Group was up 2c at 238, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare gained 4c to 971, F&P Appliances was up 5c at 965, and Advantage Group rose 2c to 18.5.

There were 30 falls and 24 rises on the 100 stocks traded.

On Wall St, the Dow Jones industrials index closed up 1 per cent at 7884.99, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 1.18 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.56 per cent at 1323.96.

- NZPA