NZ stocks: Market flat as investors sit on sidelines

12.00pm

New Zealand shares were stuck in the mud today as investors offshore tried to make sense of a barrage of news about the Iraqi war.

Wall St traded in see-saw fashion, with the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average ending down 50.14 points, or 0.61 percent, to 8230.09.

Back home, the benchmark NZ50 gross index rose 3.44 points to 1911.61 at noon, on skinny turnover of $16 million. The NZSE-40 capital index was up 4.71 points to 1882.69.

"Our volatility is nowhere near that of the Dow but we are still guided by that," Direct Broking's equities manager Brett Wilkinson said.

"Investors are continuing to stand on the sidelines, there's just no doubt about it."

After yesterday's dip on energy stocks, Contact Energy continued slipping, down 7c to 424 on light turnover. Contact and two smaller power stocks were hurt after the Government raised the prospect of possible state intervention in the electricity market to regulate prices.

Telecom reversed early weakness, rising 2c to 435 on $5.3 million worth of shares.

Others on the downside included Sky City, down 8c to 782, Michael Hill down 5c to 425 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 10c to 920, all on light volume.

Air New Zealand recovered the 1c it lost yesterday to 51 after the airline and Wellington Airport announced they were taking a dispute over $7 million in aeronautical fees to court.

Westpac gained 24c to 1549 after a defensive flight to Australian banking stocks yesterday pushed the stock up 44c.

Tower was down 1c at 198 after successfully taking the steam out of most shareholders' anger at today's annual meeting.

There were 33 rises and 28 falls among the 100 stocks traded.

On Wall St, the broader Standard and Poor's 500 edged down 4.81 points, or 0.55 percent, to 869.93. The tech-laced Nasdaq Composite fell 3.54 points, or 0.25 percent, to 1387.47.

British markets were more confident about progress on the Iraqi front and buoyed by strong oil stocks. The FTSE 100 index closed up 31.1 points, or 0.8 percent, at 3,793.1, bringing its rally in the last two weeks to over 15 percent.

- NZPA