NZ market 'as is' post-OCR

Investors paused to take stock on a day the New Zealand central bank left the official cash rate unaltered, leaving the local sharemarket little changed.

The NZ dollar fell as low as US64.70c from US65.85c yesterday in response to an implicit threat from the central bank to cut rates if the high currency threatens the recovery. But export stocks were mixed.

Commentaries at annual meetings for Mainfreight and TrustPower were noted and the focus is still on the reporting season, which gears up in mid-August.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 3.533 points, or 0.118 per cent, at 2994 after initially weakening. Turnover was worth $97.63 million. There were 42 rises and 36 falls among the 114 stocks traded.

Stuart Hardie, investment adviser at ABN Amro Craigs, said the lower currency could have been expected to help exporters but they were a mixed bag.

"The market has had a pretty good run and it is just taking a bit of a breather," he said.

Mainfreight fell 16c to 438 after the company said trading volumes had been affected by weak markets, while TrustPower was unchanged after it told shareholders the Government should partially privatise state-owned electricity companies. TrustPower also released its first quarter operating statistics.

Telecom rose 3c to 284 and Contact rose 8c to 630. Fletcher Building fell 4c to 703. The Warehouse fell 4c to 390, Port of Tauranga fell 5c to 629 and SkyTV fell 5c to 435. Pike River Coal fell 1c to 113 and NZOG fell 2c to 158.

Westpac rose 50c to 2665 and ANZ rose 25c to 2200. SkyCity rose 2c to 328 and Nuplex rose 2c to 185.

Fisher and Paykel Appliances rose 1c to 86. The healthcare stock rose 4c to 322.

Sanford rose 1c to 526. Wakefield rose 20c to 980 and Pyne Gould Corp fell 5c to 160.

US stocks fell on Wednesday as investors worried that China might be ready to hit the brakes on lending, a move that could curb demand and hinder the global economic recovery.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 5 per cent on Wednesday, its biggest daily decline in eight months, and extended losses on Thursday to fall 1.2 per cent. It had surged nearly 90 per cent this year.

But market players said the fall was most likely due to profit-taking, with some saying it was unlikely to drag the global market down with it.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 26 points, or 0.29 per cent, to close at 9070.72. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 4.47 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 975.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 7.75 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 1967.76.

Each of the three major US stock indexes gained 11 per cent in the previous two weeks as upbeat corporate earnings gave a second wind to a rally that drove the S&P 500 up 40 per cent from a 12-year closing low hit in early March.

- NZPA