Shares down on quiet Monday

The New Zealand sharemarket drifted lower on a fairly quiet Monday.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 10.137 points, or 0.322 per cent, at 3138.722. Turnover was worth $71 million. There were 29 rises and 52 falls among the 110 shares traded.

Investors should not read too much into the price movements as it was an illiquid day due a public holiday in New South Wales and other factors, said James Lee, head of institutional equities at First NZ Capital.

"Asian markets are tracking slightly higher and New Zealand is moving around on not particularly high volume," he said.

Investors are keeping and eye on an interest rate decision in Australia tomorrow and the Fonterra internet auction tonight.

Mr Lee said media reports on how US healthcare reforms may affect Fisher and Paykel Healthcare raised an issue investors had been aware of for some time.

The company said it was monitoring the reforms and if taxes on medical devices eventuated it may be possible to pass them on.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare shares closed unchanged at 320 after trading as low as 310.

Among the leaders, Telecom fell 2c to 261, Fletcher Building fell 5c to 833 and Contact Energy fell 6c to 580.

Nuplex fell 10c to 232, Cavalier fell 7c to 260, NZ Refining fell 15c to 470 and Mainfreight fell 7c to 525.

NZX, which has lifted the 20 minute delay on information on its website, was down 19c to 800.

Pyne Gould rights fell 0.6c to 1.2 and they continued to trade on big volume with 20 million rights traded. The existing shares were unchanged at 43. PGG Wrightson fell 1c to 59.

Port of Tauranga rose 3c to 685 and Pike River Coal rose 1c to 103. Sanford rose 5c to 490.

Skellerup rose 1c to 51 on a day it announced its rights issue was successful.

The Warehouse rose 5c to 425, NZOG rose 4c to 166 and Tourism Holdings rose 1c to 67.

Westpac fell 85 to 3005 and ANZ fell 75 to 2800.

In the US on Friday, shares prices slid after deeper-than-expected US job losses ignited fears that a soft American labour market could slow the pace of economic recovery.

The slide was partially offset by positive broker comments on companies in the tech and financial sectors.

US employers cut 263,000 jobs, helping to lift the US unemployment rate to a 26-year high of 9.8 per cent from 9.7 per cent in August.

"The number is going to put a real crimp on anticipation of a strong recovery," said Joseph Trevisani, senior market analyst at FX Solutions in Saddle River, New Jersey.

"The number of job losses is moving in the wrong direction."

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 0.2 per cent at 9487.67, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 0.5 per cent at 1025.21, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.5 per cent at 2048.11.

- NZPA