NZ stocks: Fletcher Building again standout in lacklustre trade

6.30pm

The New Zealand sharemarket turned in a lacklustre performance today with Fletcher Building again a salient point in trade, a broker said.

Shares in Fletcher Building were up 15c at 527 followiong yesterday's 30c rise.

The two-day surge came after the firm posted a June year net after tax profit of $240 million, up 43 per cent on the previous year.

It also posted a fully imputed final dividend of 14c a share.

ABN Amro Craigs broker Matt Willis said trade on NZX was quiet, though investors clearly had an eye for Fletcher Building shares.

"That (Fletcher Building) is a pretty compelling investment story," Mr Willis told NZPA.

"I think the stock has clearly been discounted on a slowing housing sector...but the result has well and truly indicated how much they leverage off infrastructure and non-residential building."

At 5pm, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 4.40 points at 2767.85, while the NZSX-All capital index was up 0.84 of a point at 931.28.

Market turnover was $80.1m and among the 151 stocks traded were 49 rises and 54 falls.

Shares in Telecom finished down 4c at 599, the telco's $34.2m turnover equating to 42.6 per cent of that on NZX.

"The ground Telecom is losing is obviously driving the market," Mr Willis said.

"It does feel like there's good support for the stock around the $6 mark," he said.

Another stock of note today was Toll NZ, formerly Tranz Rail, which finished up 10c at 215.

"These are the sorts of levels its expected that (majority shareholder) Toll (Holdings) would have to pay were they to clean out the minorities," Mr Willis said.

"It's interesting to see the market moving towards the perceived takeover price before there's any indication of Toll (Holdings) moving on the minorities."

The 7.1 per cent stake of Toll NZ held by New York fund manager Third Avenue Management would make the takeover story even more interesting, Mr Willis said.

Also today, Trans Tasman Properties (TTP) is set to sell the Finance Centre Complex in central Auckland to St Laurence Property & Finance Limited for $101.15m.

TTP shares finished unchanged on 37c.

Australia's Telstra was down 7c at 543, despite today reporting a net profit for 2003/04 of A$4.12 billion ($4.5b), an increase of A$689m over the previous year.

Lion Nathan was up 6c at 770. The company today said it was on track to post a full year profit of A$195m to A$200m.

Repco was up 6c at 307, after it yesterday reported a net profit of A$34.1m ($37.65m) before significant items in the June year, up from A$25m a year earlier.

Lyttelton Port was up 7c at 179 after yesterday posting a net profit of $12 million for the June year.

Other stocks on the move included: AMP up 9c at 710, Auckland International Airport up 5c at 707, Carter Holt Harvey up 4c at 215, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare up 4c at 1344, Hellaby down 7c at 538, Mooring Systems up 14c at 345, and The Warehouse up 9c at 450.

- NZPA