NZ stocks: Market gives back gains

The New Zealand sharemarket slipped back today with the benchmark NZSX-50 index down 34.183 points to 2599.026, wiping out its 26.9-point rise yesterday.

The 1.298 per cent fall in the index on turnover of 34 million shares valued at $79.2m came as stocks in the United States tumbled on concerns that the Federal Reserve's latest efforts to stem the US recession are too costly and untested.

The biggest fall - in proportion to its previous sales - was when resins and chemical maker Nuplex saw its share price halve to 52c, down 56c.

Nuplex shares closed at 107 on Friday last week, having been as low as 95c this month, and previously reaching a year-high of 647. It had been on trading halt for nearly a week while it struggled to raise $110 million of new capital.

But its initial plan to have institutions invest $60m at 55c to 60c a share, with a rights issue to existing investors offered at a 10 per cent discount for the remaining $50m failed, as did a second proposal for a 50:50 split of the $110m raising at 50c a share.

Today the capital raising looked more like a fire-sale with a fully-underwritten seven-for-one rights issue at 23c to existing shareholders to raise nearly $133m.

Leading stock Telecom, fell 12c to 233 despite its 5c rise yesterday, and help to drag the market down.

Dual-listed Lion Nathan fell 25c early to 975, then doubled the slide to finish down 50c at 950.

Rakon dropped 6c to 121, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare slipped 14c to 306.

NZ Oil & Gas rose 3c to 140 on the back of being awarded a new offshore exploration permit in the Taranaki Basin.

NZ Farming Systems Uruguay picked up 8c to 78, most of it in early trading of small volumes.

Sky City Entertainment Group was down 3c to 274.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose 1c in early trading but finished the day down 2c at 37.

Goodman Fielder rose 5c to 129 after securing a new A$100 loan facility with CBA.

PGG Wrightson was up 10c in early trading but finished up only 2c, at 122.

In the US, investors were unsettled by concerns that the Federal Reserve's latest US$1 trillion ($1.8 trillion) efforts to stem the US recession are too costly and untested, and the cashed in profits on bank shares after a recent run-up.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 85.78 points (1.2 per cent) to 7400.80, The tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 7.74 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 1,483.48 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 10.31 points, or 1.30 per cent, to 784.04.

Australian shares slipped in early trading as falls in banking and insurance stocks offset a rally in miners such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 6.3 points to 3,473.9 by lunchtime after Thursday's 1 per cent gain.

- NZPA