NZ stocks: Market ends in the black, Telecom unchanged

The New Zealand sharemarket ended in positive territory today, shunted up by Fletcher Building and Auckland Airport.

The NZ50 gross index was up 2.47 points, or 0.13 per cent, at 1974.53, while the top-40 index gained 0.12 per cent to 1941.74.

James Snell of First NZ Capital said the session was "extremely quiet".

Turnover of 27.33 million, valued at $73.31 million, was topped by Fletcher Building's $33.6 million.

"Fletcher Building had large turnover of 10.4 million shares, including a lot that was done late last night in Australia after the profit warning."

Fletcher Building said late yesterday that electricity price rises would hit second-half earnings to the tune of up to $20 million.

Although the company previously flagged a $10 million reduction in earnings, it revealed yesterday that the impact on earnings would be a further $10 million if power prices remained high.

Fletcher Building shares fell 23c yesterday but managed to scrape back 4c to close at 324 today.

"Obviously people are rebalancing their portfolios according to the new forecast numbers," Mr Snell said.

"Certainly volume was extremely light across the board today. That has exacerbated some of the moves on the day."

Among the market leaders, Telecom was unchanged at 472, Contact Energy was up 8c at 454, Carter Holt Harvey lost 4c to 165, Sky TV was up 4c at 370 and casino company Sky City gained 10c to 815.

"Auckland International Airport was up a little bit (up 6c at 524), which was surprising given that Qantas was down about 3 per cent and was Air New Zealand down (1c at 48). In fact most Asian airlines were down on expectations that traffic will continue to be weak in the near future."

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 5c at 1005 and F&P Appliances gained 4c to 1030, Powerco was up 2c at 150, Telstra lost 5c to 463, and Tower rose 3c to 208 after finally announcing a new managing director.

Tranz Rail was unchanged at 79c after it held briefings yesterday following news it would not meet third-quarter sales and profit forecasts. Tranz Rail's management told institutional shareholders it had dismissed credit rating company Standard & Poor's.


Westpac NZ, which yesterday revealed its BT Funds Management had failed to meet regulatory requirements, fell 21c to 1600.

There were 46 rises and 36 falls on the 123 stocks traded.

On Wall St the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 6.57 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 1382.94; the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average lost 1.49 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 8298.92; and the broad Standard & Poor's 500 edged down 1.64 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 878.29.

In London, the benchmark FTSE-100 index closed down 67 points, or 1.7 per cent, at 3868.8.

- NZPA