NZ stocks: Market closes flat in holiday affected market

The key indices closed flat today in a market hollowed out by holidays in Auckland and Australia.

"It was a low activity, low volume day," lamented First NZ Capital broker Barry Lindsay.

The influences from offshore were negative with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping half a percent on Friday and the Nikkei in Japan down 1.5 percent when the New Zealand market closed.

The NZSX-50 gross index finished just 0.11 lower at 2503.14 while the NZSX-40 capital index fell 0.86 to 2323.85.

Turnover was worth only $37.2 million with 36 rises and 35 falls on 136 stocks traded.

The two leading stocks pulled in different directions.

Heavyweight Telecom gained 2c to 551 while Carter Holt Harvey slipped to 211. Trade in Telecom made up nearly two thirds of the total market turnover.

Mr Lindsay said Carter Holt's fall ahead of its annual result on Thursday "did not necessarily mean it has peaked and it's all over".

Analysts are expecting Carter Holt will have Ebit (earnings before interest and tax) of about $100 million in the fourth quarter against $82m a year earlier, but the full year bottom line will be dragged into the red by a revaluation downwards of its forests.

Direct Broking's Bernie Kupidura said Carter Holt's dip was likely to be profit-taking, "and newspaper articles about when the forests are going to be sold and whether there's going to be full value taken out in the near term".

The Warehouse continued its erratic course this year, rising 5c to 520. Fellow retailer Hallenstein Glasson rose 4c to 290.

Steel & Tube was one of the best performed stocks, rising 9c to 395, equal to its best close since last October.

Two other top 50 stocks had 9c rises -- fund company AMP, which rose to 550, and Westpac NZ to 1820.

On the downside, Fisher & Paykel Appliances fell 7c to 378 and Ports of Auckland fell 3c to 782.

BIL International rose 2c to 69, Fletcher Building also rose 2c to 403, and Freightways rose 3c to 230.

Penny dreadful Sealegs, formerly IT Corp, rose 1.5c, or 75 percent, to 0.35c on turnover of 6.7 million shares.

Among other smaller stocks to move, Dorchester Pacific rose 20c to 275, Richmond rose 24c to 270 on turnover of just 350 shares, Taylors Group fell 10c to 285, and Williams & Kettle fell 11c to 469.

- NZPA