NZ shares: Market closes weaker

The New Zealand sharemarket t ook another breather from its rally today as the reporting season got closer.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index, which lost 8.7 points yesterday after gaining strongly earlier in the week, shed another 27.921 points, or 0.905 per cent, to close at 3056.149 today.

Turnover was worth $83.1 million. There were 37 rises and 50 falls among the 121 stocks traded.

The three market heavyweights all fell - Telecom 10c to 275, Fletcher Building 10c to 735 and Contact Energy 11c to 650.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 6c to 325, while the Appliances stock eased 1c to 85.

"We just had several solid days up apart from the last bit of yesterday. Inevitably there was going to be some profit-taking," said Stephen Wright of ASB Securities.

"The market has been going up on the back of US earnings figures and we have now got to see our own," he said.

Selected stocks held up. Steel & Tube rose 6c to 326, SkyTV rose 2c to 465 and Freightways rose 2c to 322.

Banks were strong with Westpac up 71 to 2851 and ANZ up 10c to 2425.

Cavalier fell 3c to 237, The Warehouse fell 4c to 400 and Sanford fell 3c to 522.

Mainfreight fell 3c to 477, Nuplex fell 1c to 200 and Pike River Coal fell 2c to 115. Rakon fell 2c to 136.

TrustPower fell 10c to 765 and Ebos fell 10c to 535.

- REUTERS reported from New York that US stocks slipped after weak data on the services sector and private payrolls cooled recent optimism the recession was retreating, but the market finished off its lows as investors ventured into riskier financial shares.

The market's decline came on the heels of a four-day rally that had driven the three major US stock indices to close on Tuesday at their highest levels in nine to 10 months.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 39.22 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 9280.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 2.93 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 1002.72. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 18.26 points, or 0.91 per cent, to 1993.05.

- NZPA