NZ stocks: Market finishes down as investors indulge in profit-taking

The New Zealand sharemarket finished the day below its recent highs as investors indulged in profit-taking in market leader Telecom, a broker said.

At 5pm, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 22.33 points at 2440.40c while the NZSX-40 capital index was down 21.10 points at 2270.76c.

Both indices had several times pushed to fresh highs in holiday-thinned trading since the market opened on January 5.

The NZSX-50 hit an all time high of 2479.83 on January 7, while the NZSX-40 peaked at 2309.30 on January 11, its highest point since May 1998.

Today, there was $103.3 million worth of shares traded on volume of 31.5 million. Among the 140 stocks traded were 46 rises and 54 falls.

Telecom was down 8c at 524, having traded $60.2 million worth on volume of 11.5 million.

ABN Amro Craigs broker Matt Willis said investors had been profit-taking, particularly in Telecom shares.

"I think the volume that we've seen in the market today probably indicates there is high institutional flow, therefore some offshore selling in our market is often the case," he told NZPA today.

"Telecom accounted for over half the turnover today and there was quite a bit of selling pressure in Telecom.

"The currency has got to be a big consideration for offshore investors in Telecom," he said.

At 5pm, the New Zealand dollar was at US68.15c, having hit a 6-1/2 year high of US68.71c last night and appreciated 25 per cent against the US dollar in the 2003 year.

Meanwhile, the market's number two stock Carter Holt Harvey was down 3c at 192, having traded $5.2 million worth on volume of 2.7 million.

One of last year's stars, Trustpower, which has continued its good run this year, fell back 25c today to 650 as a spike in wholesale power prices proved short lived.

Discount retailer The Warehouse, which has had a positive, albeit erratic, start to 2004, fell 4c to 525 today.

Other movers included: AMP down 11c at 552, Contact Energy up 5c at 560, DB Breweries up 5c at 825, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 37c at 1183, Independent Newspapers Ltd down 7c at 508, Mooring Systems up 9c at 260, and NZ Refining up 50c at 1590.

The influence from Wall Street was negative where stocks fell after lacklustre quarterly scorecards from some marquee technology companies.

Comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan also failed to whet investors' appetite for stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 58.00 points to 10,427.18, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 6.01 points to 1121.22, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 15.34 points to 2096.44.

- NZPA