NZ stocks: Market improves slightly during morning trading

12.15 pm

The New Zealand sharemarket opened lower today, after a poor showing from world sharemarkets overnight but it improved slightly during the morning.

All the major markets closed lower and Sydney was out for the Queen's Birthday long-weekend holiday.

The only real features of the quiet opening on the home market were the remarkably light volumes -- and Telecom, Geoff Brown at J P Morgan Chase said.

"The only stock that's traded any volume is Telecom, which is quite a bit weaker but there's nothing in the way of news - that's company specific news - related to that," he said.

At 11am the NZSE-40 index stood at 2056.95 -- 3.61 points -- or 0.18 percent -- lower and but up from the opening 2054.93.

The NZSE-SCI capital index was 6.29 points - or 0.11 per cent - higher, at 5476.99 but slightly below the opening 5477.70.

Turnover at 11am was 10.23 million shares, worth $22.81 million and of the 102 shares traded, 26 rose but 33 fell.

Market heavyweight, Telecom - which has a 23 per cent weighting in the Top 40 index - was 11c lower at 562 and was topping turnover with 2.45 million shares, worth $13.81 million.

Fisher and Paykel was 39c higher at 1109, on volume of 79,829 shares, to continue its recent strong run.

Yesterday the Government formalised dumping duties on Korean whiteware at the request of Fisher and Paykel - the domestic maker - but the competition was beating the penalties by importing the same machines from different countries.

"Samsung, which is the company we deal with, has factories all over Asia - Thailand, China, and Korea," Peter Halkett, chief executive of Pacific Retail Group which sells some of the fridges and washing machines in question through its Noel Leeming and Bond and Bond stores, said.

Fisher and Paykel had said it lost $4.5 million off its bottom-line in the first half of the 2000 financial year, because of dumped imports.

Air NZ's domestic A shares were a couple of cents lower at 107 and so were the freely-held B shares at 142. It has reduced its low-price fares between Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin in a move apparently designed to put pressure on Qantas feeder airline, Origin Pacific.

Brierley Investments was a cent lower at 61. Its chief executive officer, Greg Terry, said yesterday that it will probably act on its stake in Singapore soft-drinks' group, Fraser and Neave in the coming weeks.

"There is no point in having 10 per cent. We either should take profits, or we should look at playing a more strategic role in F and N," he said.

Analysts had speculated that Singapore-based Brierley - controlled by low profile Malaysian tycoon, Quek Leng Chan - would either raise its stake or make a partial offer for the company.

Power company, Natural Gas Corp, rose a couple of cents to 106. It is negotiating with several electricity market players to relieve its exposure to spot electricity prices but will not say whether it considers recent record prices unfair.

Fletcher Challenge spin-off, Rubicon, gained a cent to 62. It announced yesterday that it wanted to return $NZ40 million to shareholders after the sell-off of its fuels terminal in Australia.

Fletcher Building was a cent higher at 237 and Forests was a cent lower at 30.

Meat exporter Richmond gained 3c to 310 but on light volume.

Auckland International Airport was steady at 355.

Lion Nathan gained 8c to 505, Montana was steady at 480, Pay TV operator Sky TV was steady at 345, as was part owner, Independent Newspapers at 360.

Infratil dropped a couple of cents to 142 and wood-products' firm, Carter Holt Harvey, was unchanged at 176.

The Warehouse gained 6c to 570, Contact Energy rose a couple of cents to 290, Trans Tasman Properties was steady at 23 and Waste Management rose 2c to 390.

Among other moves, drinks company Frucor dropped a cent to 160, casino operator, Sky City rose 20c to 1030, financial-services' company Tower gained 5c to 540, AMP shed 5c to 2540 and Baycorp was unchanged at 1220.

- NZPA