NZ stocks: Market eases as offshore markets tumbles

12.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket was down again today, although it refrained from dumping as much value as offshore markets have.

By mid-morning the NZSE-40 capital index was down 7.77 points, or 0.39 per cent, at a seven-week low of 1975.80. The benchmark index has not closed at that level for two months.

Light turnover of 4.96 million stocks was valued at $13.08 million.

Markets in Europe, the United States and Britain closed at multi-year lows again, removing volume from the New Zealand sharemarket as global economic and security concerns remained to the fore.

Financial services company AMP was down 30c at 1290, up 5c from its opening price.

Fallout continued from the sudden departure of chief executive Paul Batchelor yesterday, while the British sharemarket, to which AMP is exposed, hit near seven-year lows.

"The spotlight's on that stock again today, with the FTSE through critical levels," Sam Macdonald of DF Mainland said.

Australasia's biggest fund manager, with more than 92,000 New Zealand shareholders owning over 41 million shares, hit record lows yesterday morning before trading was halted.

AMP said on Friday that it might have to lift to £500 million ($1.67 billion) the amount it pumps in to UK Pearl to meet regulatory requirements, if the FTSE fell below 3700.

At one point yesterday the British index plunged to an intraday low of 3609.9, a level not seen since December 1995.

Elsewhere on the market, Sky City Leisure -- formerly Force Corporation -- shares were down 0.1c at 9.2, while its convertible notes lost 1c to 194.

"Investors are finally realising which (Sky Leisure) shares's the one to be in there, the convertibles," Mr Macdonald said.

Strangely, company's convertible notes effectively price the head shares at 3.9c.

The only explanation from sharebrokers spoken to by the Herald was that speculative trading by retail punters was keeping up the price of the "penny dreadful" share.

In March, the company issued 31 million mandatory convertible notes for $1 each to raise capital after the disastrous expansion into the cinema business in Argentina.

Each note was to convert into 50 shares in December 2006.

Carter Holt Harvey lost 4c to a year low of 159, despite the raising of the rating of its majority shareholder International Paper to "hold" from "sell" by US-based Prudential Securities.

IP, which owns 50.5 per cent of Carter Holt Harvey, fell more than 6 per cent during Tuesday's session in the US.

Telecom was unchanged 475, Auckland International Airports was down 1c at 435, Briscoe Group lost 3c to 260 and fellow retailer The Warehouse shed 1c to 721.

Fisher & Paykel Halthcare lost 11c to 970, Fletcher Building was down 2c at 288, Contact Energy gained 2c to 383 and recently listed Skellmax was up 1c at 100.

There were 46 falls and 13 rises on the 111 stocks traded.

Offshore, the UK's benchmark index closed down 68.3 points or 1.8 per cent at 3671 points; and European blue chips ended around 5-1/2 year lows.

On Wall St, the Dow Jones industrial average slumped 189.02 points, or 2.4 per cent, to 7683.13; the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 14.43 points, or 1.73 per cent, at 819.27; and the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index was down 2.79 points, or 0.24 per cent, at 1182.14.

- NZPA