NZ stocks: Market lacklustre

The New Zealand sharemarket got off to a quiet start to a week that is expected to be lacklustre.

The turnover was a $79 million worth of shares, of which $22.3m was in Fletcher Building.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 1.393 points, or 0.051 per cent, at 2736.889. There were 27 rises and 33 falls among the 99 stocks traded.

Features included a 10c rise in Contact to 573. Brokers did not attribute it to any particular reason and said turnover in the stock was light.

Fletcher Building rose as high as 636 on news that a consortium of which it is a part has won a $406m contract for a tunnel under Victoria Park in Auckland which is starting early. The stock closed up 1c at 656.

Stephen Wright at ASB Securities said the contract was a big fillip for Fletcher Building and the stock's highs of the day were achieved in the wake of the announcement. But the stock ran out of puff in the lackustre market.

"Asia is down and we are only down a fraction," he said. "The market fluctuated down a few points and up a few points today," he said.

There was little direction from offshore with the US market choppy in light trading on Friday and Asian markets mixed to lower.

AMP NZ Office Trust was unchanged at 71 after announcing a 5.15 per cent fall in the value of its portfolio in the three months to June 30. Brokers said the net asset backing was lower than when the company raised capital.

Telecom was down 1c to 266.

Sky City fell 3c to 262, NZ Refining fell 5c to 685, Auckland Airport fell 2c to 151 and Rakon fell 3c to 145.

Sky Network Television rose 4c to 415, NZX rose 15 to 730 and Lion Nathan rose 5c to 1440. Sanford rose 4c to 520.

Stronger than expected May retail sales data today raised eyebrows but had a mixed impact on retailers. The Warehouse was unchanged at 370 as was Michael Hill on 63. Pumpkin Patch fell 1c to 150 and Postie Plus fell 1c to 35.

TrustPower was unchanged at 750 as was Tower on 169. Vector rose 3c to 204.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare fell 3c to 282 but the appliances stock rose 1c to 67.

US investors remained cautious ahead of the US corporate earnings season.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.1 per cent to 8183.17, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 0.4 per cent to 882.68, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.3 per cent to 1752.55.

- NZPA