Market weakens but NZX up 22c

Sharemarket operator NZX outperformed a weak market for a second consecutive day after clearly signalling dividend payment plans and a share split.

NZX rose 22c, or 2.65 percent, to 853, after rising 41c yesterday. The stock has more than doubled from 418 on January 23 this year. The rise today was on light volume.

``Stocks when they have share splits typically trade up,' said James Lee, head of Institutional equities at First NZ Capital.

``It is one of those feel good things. Stocks feel a bit cheaper,' he said.

Otherwise the market was winding down into the holiday season and there was a reasonable amount of selling in selected leaders, which abated somewhat in afternoon trading.

The benchmark NZX50 index fell 1.274 points, or 0.041 percent, to 3137.305. Turnover was worth $82.8 million.

Allied Farmers was unchanged at 28 after its shareholders approved a plan to buy the assets of Hanover Group. Approval is now being sought from Hanover investors on December 16.

Fletcher Building rose 1c to 769 even though Statistic New Zealand reported the seasonally adjusted volume of residential building work fell 5.4 percent in the September quarter, to an eight year low.

Telecom rose 1c at 237 and Contact Energy rose 5c at 590.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose a cent to 58. Fisher and Paykel Healthcare rose 1c to 342.

SkyCity fell 1c to 334 on good volume and Air NZ was down 3c to 117 on good volume.

Hallenstein Glasson fell 14c to 301.

Port of Tauranga fell 14c to 693 and Tower fell 4c to 199. Steel & Tube fell 4c to 270 and Infratil fell 2c to 165. Ebos fell 5c to 560 and Pike River Coal fell 1c to 100.

A comment by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke that the US economy faced ``formidable headwinds' tempered sentiment in the US market on Monday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 1.21 points, or 0.01 percent, at 10,390.11. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.73 points, or 0.25 percent, to 1103.25 and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 4.74 points, to 0.22 percent, to 2189.61.

- NZPA