NZ stocks: Big float and dip by Telecom leaves market little changed

The New Zealand sharemarket finished today little changed after a session in which the market's biggest listing in four years failed to meet optimist's expectations and a dip in market leader Telecom was offset by modest gains in other top stocks.

By the 5pm close the NZSX-50 gross index was 3.6 points or 0.16 per cent lower at 2270.59, while the NZSX-40 capital index finished 2.66 points or 0.12 per cent lower at 2174.59. Turnover was a respectable $82.7 million.

ASB Securities' Andrew Kelleher told NZPA the market started off looking promising this morning, " but then everything just kind of slipped away".

By 5pm Telecom was 2c lower at 515. "Fortunately Contact and Carter Holt kept us on the straight and narrow on the day, and stopped the NZSX-50 from falling away", Mr Kelleher said.

Contact Energy finished 8c up at 502 while Carter Holt Harvey ended today 2c higher at 170.

Elsewhere, Mr Kelleher said there was little of note today other than the Freightways listing.

Freight and courier company Freightways shares debuted on the market today at 175c -- a 9 per cent premium to their 160c offer price in what was the largest listing in New Zealand since 1999.

After rising as high as 176c, Freightways' shares closed at 172c.

"Not bad, but slightly lower than some people had been expecting", Mr Kelleher said.

"I think people had been looking for that 15 per cent premium -- we didn't quite get there. I think we need to see were the stock settles in a few day's time -- there were a lot of re-sale sellers on the day today."

Mr Kelleher said big numbers from the US were likely to affect the local market this week.

"I think that's probably going to be the focus this week to see whether or not the weakness we saw in the Dow towards the end of last week continues."

Meanwhile back in New Zealand stocks to rise today included: Air NZ up a cent to 51, AMP up 5c to 755, Cavalier Corp up 3c to 505, Hellaby Holdings up 6c to 508, Michael Hill up a cent to 425, NZX up 10c to 450, Pacific Retail up 10c to 265, and Ryman Healthcare up 5c to 210 .

Stocks to fall today included: Auckland International Airport down 6c to 659, BayCorp Advantage down 5c to 254, Fisher & Paykel Appliances down 10c to 1465, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 10c to 1255, Fletcher Building down 7c to 418, Guinness Peat Group down a cent to 166, Independent Newspapers Ltd down a cent to 455, Infratil down 2c to 222, Postie Plus down 4c to 115, Promina down 4c to 351, Sanford down 5c to 500, Sky TV down 3c to 502, Steel & Tube down 6c to 354, and Telstra down 17c to 542.

There were 37 rises and 55 falls on 141 stocks traded today.

- NZPA