NS stocks: Shares drift off in quiet holiday trade

12.00 pm

The New Zealand sharemarket drifted lower this morning, in quiet, holiday-affected trade.

With Auckland investors out of the picture for their anniversary-day holiday, the benchmark NZSE-40 fell 3.47 points to 2120.16 by just after 11.30am, on turnover worth just $24 million.

"I would expect it to be a pretty quiet day today, given that half the market's not here. I wouldn't expect too much to happen," ASB Securities dealer Andrew Kelleher said.

Fisher and Paykel led the downward trend, falling 55c to 1500. The stock has been sold off in recent days on reports that US rival Innomed Technologies has netted a sales coup for a new medical face mask to treat respiratory disorders.

Sister stock Fisher and Paykel Appliances eased 30c to 980.

Forest products company Carter Holt Harvey slipped 4c to 195 as investors indulged in a spot of profit-taking following the stock's recent strong run.

Baycorp Advantage fell 10c to 730, takeover target Contact Energy slipped a cent to 379, Lion Nathan was down 2c at 590, and The Warehouse lost a cent to 667.

On the upside, market leader Telecom added 4c to 543, Auckland Airport was up 2c at 392, Sky TV added 4c to 424 and Steel and Tube added 2c to 275.

Falls outnumbered rises by 27 to 22 among the 92 stocks traded so far.

Offshore markets provided few leads, given their mixed results on Friday, Mr Kelleher said.

On Wall St blue-chip stocks rose amid speculation the Bush administration may move to limit liability for asbestos lawsuits, but technology issues lost ground on a raft of bleak profit forecasts.

The broad Standard & Poor's 500 index eked out a gain of 1.13 points, or 0.10 per cent, to 1,133.28 while the tech-laced Nasdaq moved back a little into the red, with a loss of 4.88 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 1,937.70.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average rose 44.01 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 9,840.08. For the week, the Dow rose 0.70 per cent, the Nasdaq gained 0.38 per cent and the S&P 500 added 0.50 per cent.

This week, investors will turn their attention to the US Federal Reserve's policy-making committee, which will meet to decide whether to cut interest rates again.

A majority of Wall Street bond dealers say the Fed has finished cutting rates and will keep them at 40-year lows until the second half of the year.

- NZPA