NZ stocks: Market creeps lower

The New Zealand share market crept lower today despite a rise in Wall Street.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 2.464 points, or 0.093 per cent, at 2656.385. Turnover was worth $113.8 million. There were 32 rises and 39 falls among the 102 stocks traded.

"It was a disappointing day considering the positive cue from offshore markets but we are outperforming our cousins over the ditch," said James Smalley of sharebrokers Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.

Telecom fell 4c to 259 and the volume of shares traded was worth $31.5 million. Telecom traded as high as 268 during the day.

"Telecom held us up for most of the day but it is trading near its lows at the end of the day," said Mr Smalley.

Fletcher Building rose 18c to 632. Mr Smalley said the focus could be turning to high yielding stocks ahead of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's interest rate decision next Thursday.

Contact shares were down 2c to 558, having reached a multi-year low of $5.46 last week.

In quarterly figures published today, Contact said it had 487,000 electricity customers at the end of March, down 5.8 per cent from last year.

Port of Tauranga fell 10c to 550, Sanford eased 15c to 550 and Tower eased 2c to 131.

SkyCity eased 3c to 273 with $12.5m worth of shares traded. Infratil eased 4c to 153.

Cavalier rose 5c to 170 and Hallenstein Glassons rose 6c to 241.

Nuplex rose 1c to 34 after 99 million more shares were sold to sub-underwriters at 27c each.

US stocks rose in volatile trade on Thursday as better-than-expected results from several regional banks lifted financial shares, overshadowing disappointing economic data.

But investors wrestled with the possibility that the federal government's "stress tests" on 19 major US banks may reveal weaknesses. The government is set to unveil results on May 4.

"It's still about the banks," said Frank Lesh, a futures analyst and broker at FuturePath Trading LLC in Chicago.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 70.49 points, or 0.89 per cent, to 7957.06. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 8.37 points, or 0.99 per cent, to 851.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 6.09 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 1652.21.

- NZPA