NZ stocks: Little changed in uneventful morning trade

12.15pm

The New Zealand sharemarket was trading virtually unchanged by noon today after a soft start, with little in the way of news to provide direction.

Shortly before midday, the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was 0.03 of a point lower at 2861.77, while the NZSX all capital index was 0.67 of a point higher at 952.41.

Total turnover by 11.30am was worth $32.88 million and there were 32 rises and 30 falls among the 123 stocks traded.

"There's no real highlights out there," Direct Broking's Peter Lynds said.

Market leader Telecom was unchanged at 600 while Contact Energy was down a cent to 598, Carter Holt Harvey was up a cent to 237, and Fletcher Building was down 2c to 592.

Takeover target NGC rose 2c to 302. Auckland lines company Vector has bid $3 a share for the 66 per cent stake in NGC owned by Australian Gas Light (AGL).

Under the Takeovers Code the offer must be extended to all shareholders.

"I don't think they'll get widespread acceptance of that offer so thankfully we'll still have it listed for perhaps another 12 months anyway," Mr Lynds said.

Vector is planning to help pay for its takeover with an initial public offering (IPO) of shares -- likely to raise several hundred million dollars.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances continued to move higher after announcing yesterday it had bought US appliance manufacturer and distributor Dynamic Cooking Systems. It was 4c higher at 421.

Toll NZ rose 5c to 275. This morning it said it had gained approval to refinance $268 million in debt held by its parent, Australia's Toll Holdings.

Rural services company Wrightson was up 5c to 159 after yesterday saying at its annual meeting it was on track to lift annual profit to $16m in the current financial year from $10.3m last year.

Elsewhere across the market there were few moves of note.

- NZPA