NZ stocks: Market gives up battle to stay in the black

5.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket lost the battle to hold on to territory gained last week, despite a reasonable day on Wall Street on Friday.

The NZSE-40 capital index closed down 13.44 points, or 0.67 per cent, at 2006.93, and the top-10 index lost 0.65 per cent to close at 888.01.

Turnover of 21.40 million stocks was valued at $45.34 million.

JB Were broker Gareth Stythe said the market was subdued today, with BIL International's annual result providing the main corporate news.

Singapore-based BIL International posted a net profit of US$10.4 million ($22.4 million) today for the June year, compared with a loss of US$119.6 million last year.

The share price reached a high of 57c in Wellington, but ended the day up 1c at 54.

"I think the result was out on Friday in Singapore, because that's their main listing. It traded quite strongly on Friday in Singapore, and the next time it was open to trade was in New Zealand but we must have had some profit-taking from Singapore in the afternoon," Mr Stythe said.

Market heavyweight Telecom lost 3c to close at 479, on reasonable volume worth $23.53 million -- almost half the total turnover.

"It was up early in the morning, I think it's just continued nervousness about international markets reflecting on our largest traded stock," he said.

Telecom appeared responsible for a fall in publisher Independent Newspapers Ltd, which lost 11c to close at 314, following speculation in the Sunday press that the telco was planning to exit its 9.9 per cent stake. Telecom was also said to be quitting its 12 per cent stake in pay television operator Sky TV, to pay off debt.

Sky TV was unchanged at 360.

Going ex-dividend to the tune of 22.5c per share, casino operator Sky City closed down 25c at 710.

"It was quite strong on Friday though, it opened at 724 and closed at 735. People are happy to get out now they have the dividend, the reverse case of what happened on Friday when people were getting in to get the dividend," Mr Stythe said.

Shares in AMP Ltd ended down 8c at a fresh low of 1332, erasing a near 3 per cent gain this morning after the Australian insurance giant announced plans to inject £500 million into its troubled British unit.

Investors slashed A$1.5 billion off the holdings group's value towards the end of last week after it emerged AMP's Pearl unit in Britain had breached regulatory rules for holding insufficient capital.

AMP's stock was halted Friday as Australia's securities regulator examined the company's disclosure about Pearl.

Lyttelton Port fell 8c to 160 in response to comments on Friday that it was fighting to save a large part of its P&O Nedlloyd shipping business after failing to get a union agreement to work ships 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Baycorp Advantage lost 3c to 367, Fletcher Building was down 2c at 290, Carter Holt Harvey shed 1c to 164, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 5c at 995, and The Warehouse lost 8c to 724.

On the plus side, Auckland International Airport gained 8c to 449, Tranz Rail was up 1c at 168, Port of Tauranga rose 3c to 808, and Pacific Retail gained 17c to 372.

There were 49 falls and 37 rises on the 124 stocks traded.

On Wall St the Dow Jones industrial average was up 43.63 points, or 0.55 per cent, at 7986.02; the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 2.07 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 845.39; and the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index was up 4.64 points, or 0.38 per cent, at 1221.09.

- NZPA