NZ stocks: Few bright spots on sharemarket

Shares in financial services company AMP staged a brief rebound today on an otherwise dull New Zealand sharemarket.

Just after 11am the NZSE-40 capital index was down 7.65 points to 1976.23 on light turnover of $14.2 million.

New Zealand's benchmark index hit a high on January 15 of 2015 points after starting the year at 1950.

AMP shares opened up 7c at 1075 before later slipping 3c to 1065.


Direct Broking equities manager Brett Wilkinson said the brief rally was inspired by AMP's close in Australia yesterday where it finished at A$10.06 ($11.01).

"With the (United States) Dow Jones index being down 130 points, probably people are saying it will be down in Australia today anyway," he said.

Fellow financial services stock Tower was up 3c at 202, Ports of Auckland gained 10c to 690, and Independent Newspapers Ltd was steady at 315.

Christchurch company Scott Technology rose 20c to 275 after its announcement yesterday of a $14 million order from the United States.

On the down side, Advantage Group was down 1c at a year low of 21, Baycorp Advantage lost 2c to 235, Carter Holt Harvey was down 2c to 174, Telecom was down a cent to 456, Tranz Rail was down 2c to 131, meat exporter Richmond lost 2c to 281, and Sky City casino was down 6c at 856.

Despite solid turnover, Guinness Peat Group and IT Capital were steady at $1.50 and 2.4c respectively.

There were 22 rises and 37 falls on the 95 stocks traded.

On Wall St, brokers were admitted that the New Year rally in equities may have been premature, a view reinforced by more weak corporate earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial average fell 124.17 points, or 1.47 per cent, to 8,318.73, breaching its 2002 close of 8,341.63.


The Dow had rallied as high as 6 per cent for the year by January 14.

The broad S&P 500 dropped 9.24 points, or 1.04 per cent, to 878.38, dipping under last year's close of 879.82.

The Nasdaq Composite Index eased 4.67 points, or 0.34 per cent, at 1,359.58.


The technology-laced index is still up 1.8 per cent for the year after ending at 1,335.51 in 2002.


The Nasdaq had been up more than 9 per cent earlier in the month.

- NZPA