Sanford shares up, market down

Shares in fishing company Sanford rose sharply today on the back of a profit upgrade but it was a bleak day for much of the market after stocks in the United States posted their biggest loss in two months.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be an interesting day with the Accident Compensation Corp (ACC) revealing late today that it is fighting to remove AMP Haumi Management Ltd as manager of AMP NZ Office Trust (ANZO). AMP Haumi is a joint venture between AMP Capital Investors and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, both giant fund managers.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed down 14.923 per cent, or 0.458 per cent, at 3243.013.

Sanford was the star, rising 28c to 440, after the company issued a profit upgrade for its annual result due on November 24.

"It was slightly ahead of previous company guidance and it will be interesting to see how some of these one-offs work through the bottom line," said James Lee, director of institutional equities at First NZ Capital.

Restaurant Brands closed up 6c to 258 and traded as high as 265 after reporting a 50 per cent rise in first half net profit, excluding non-trading items, to $13.9 million.

Mr Lee said volume overall was light and Telecom, as a liquid stock, was among the most active and weakest stocks. Telecom fell 3c to 203.

ANZO fell 1c to 76. Unitholders vote tomorrow on the conversion of the largest office owner in the country from a unit trust into a company with an external manager. But 8.9 per cent shareholder ACC said it intends to vote against all the resolutions and is calling for a separate meeting to remove the manager.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 3c to 319, while Fletcher Building dropped 7c to 813, Contact Energy lost 2c to 572, Steel & Tube was down 2c to 243, Hellaby Holdings lost 3c to 192.

Tourism Holdings lost 2c to 75 on top of its 11c decline yesterday after the company released a trading outlook update just before the market closed on Monday, saying it was expecting a first half net loss of up to $1 million.

OceanaGold fell 30c to 460.

In the US, the fall in stock prices came on fears that banks might be on the hook for billions of dollars in souring mortgage bonds. Bank of America and possibly others may be forced to take back billions of dollars in mortgages that should not have been bundled into bonds.

Investors were also reeling from an unexpected credit tightening by China and disappointing financial results from Apple and IBM.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1.5 per cent to 10,978.62, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 1.6 per cent to 1165.90, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.8 per cent to 2436.95.

- NZPA