NZ stocks: Market gives up some of recent gains

The New Zealand sharemarket gave up some of yesterday's gains during this morning's session as it followed the mildly negative example set by most offshore markets overnight.

By 11.30am the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was 8.15 points or 0.31 per cent lower at 2613.89, while the NZSX-All Capital Index was 2.30 points or 0.26 per cent lower at 882.58 .

"We seem to be just a little bit weaker", ASB Securities broker Andrew Kelleher told NZPA.

"I think that's possibly just to do with how much we've run up in the last few days, we have had a pretty good run of it particularly with a strong move yesterday. We're just giving back a few of those gains."

But on the upside, "we've got plenty of volume under our belts," he said.

Turnover by 11.30am was worth a hefty $66.86 million but this was swelled by a sizeable crossing of BHP Billiton stock. There were 39 rises and 31 falls among the 124 stocks traded.

Mr Kelleher said today's volume may also be boosted by trades made before tomorrow's pre-holiday half-day session which he expected would be fairly quiet.

Meanwhile market leader Telecom was unchanged at 577 by 11.30am, but the NZSX-50 was dragged lower by falls in a number of other top stocks.

Carter Holt Harvey was down 2c to 228 while Contact Energy was also down 2c to 548 and Sky City was down 7c to 441.

Fletcher Building was down 7c to 457. "Its one of those stocks that have had a very good run really. At 457 it's probably just a little bit of profit taking," Mr Kelleher said.

Wrightson, currently the subject of a proposed $1.50 a share partial takeover bid by a Rural Portfolio Investments, headed by former Fonterra boss Craig Norgate, was 2c lower at 139.

Briscoe was up a cent to 155. Yesterday speculation surfaced that the retailer may bid for British owned book chain Whitcoulls.

Other stocks to move in morning trade included: Dorchester Pacific down 5c to 270, GRD down 5c to 220, Infratil up a cent to 286, NGC Holdings down 2c to 241, Port of Tauranga down 5c to 460, Promina up 2c to 438, TelstraClear up 3c to 529, and Tenon up 2c to 179.

On overseas markets, Wall St's Nasdaq Composite Index ended down 19.22 points at 2059.90, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 12.44 points at 10,570.81 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 2.40 points to 1148.17.

In London, the FTSE 100 index ended down 7.9 points, or 0.18 per cent, at 4,472.8.

Japan's Nikkei average closed up 1.02 per cent or 121.38 points to 12,079.70.

- NZPA