NZ stocks: Market dragged down by Telecom: broker

The sharemarket finished slightly down today after heavy trading in market heavyweight Telecom saw its shares sink lower.

At 5pm, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 5.37 points at 2306.92, while the NZSX-40 capital index was down 1.5 points at 2205.20.

There was $117.6 million worth of shares traded on volume of 40 million. Among the 155 stocks traded there were 46 falls and 48 rises.

ABN Amro Craigs operator Matt Willis said Telecom had dominated trading on New Zealand Exchange today, its shares down 1c at 484, a 5-1/2-month low.

The teleco had traded $61.8 million worth of shares on volume of 12.7 million.

"It looks over-sold to us... there's a view being taken on currency here or there is offshore investors exiting our market because of currency," Mr Willis told NZPA today.

"It's creating a very good buying opportunity locally for Telecom," he said.

Elsewhere on the market, all eyes were on the Mainfreight, Owens Group, Toll Holdings situation.

Mainfreight's conditional takeover offer for Owens ended at 5pm today. Mainfreight's $1.10 a share offer secured it 78.7 per cent of Owens, well short of the 90 per cent target.

Australian-based Toll had stumped up with a $1.16 a share offer and captured about a 12 per cent blocking stake in Owens.

Mainfreight's offer has now gone unconditional.

"I suppose they (Mainfreight) could have walked away and be no further down the track in terms of consolidating their position in the transport market," Mr Willis said.

"If they want a bigger piece of the (Owens) pie they really had to go unconditional on what they've got.

"What Toll's motives and intentions are from here is the big unknown," Mr Willis said.

Owens shares were down 3c at 112, Mainfreight shares were up 4c at 139. Toll owns about 85 per cent of rail operator Tranz Rail, its shares unchanged on 126.

Mainfreight has also revamped the Owens board.

Also on NZX today, shares on the slide included: Auckland International Airport down 4c at 661, AMP down 8c at 755, Fletcher Building down 1c at 439, Westpac down 10c at 1760, Carter Holt Harvey down 4c at 183, and Fisher & Paykel Appliances down 17c at 1473.

Among those on the rise were: F&P Healthcare up 15c at 1210, Infratil up 4c at 249, Sky City Entertainment up 3c at 895, Sky Network TV up 1c at 517, Baycorp up 2c at 310, Independent Newspapers Ltd up 7c at 475, NGC up 1c at 176, and TrustPower up 15c at 590.

Overseas, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 47.18 points at 9821.71, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 2.31 points at 1050.42, while the FTSE 100 share index ended up 35.2 points at 4300.9.

- NZPA