NZ stocks: Market keeps most ground while other markets down

The New Zealand sharemarket held onto most of the ground made up yesterday despite falls in offshore markets.

The NZSX-50 gross index fell 2.77 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 2272.79, while the top-40 index lost 0.14 per cent to 2175.42.

Healthy turnover of 28.98 million, valued at $95.96 million, was topped by Telecom's $39.12 million.

ABN Amro Craigs retail equities adviser Nigel Scott said the New Zealand market had performed well in the face of falls offshore, particularly in Australia.

"Aussie's been the weak link today ... they've really reacted to the lower Asian and US markets overnight.

"Our market's held up -- we're not closing in the positive but it's pretty close to it and that's a pretty good performance on the day," Mr Scott said.

Carter Holt rose 1c to 174, Contact Energy gained 6c to 495, casino company Sky City piled on 18c to 858, and discount giant The Warehouse was up 7c at 543.

"The four or five big market capitalisation stocks are all reacting positively, and you can only say that's because of the defensive nature of our market, with people buying the yield and people buying the leaders," Mr Scott said.

Market leader Telecom's close down 6c at 518 failed to shake the benchmark index.

"Telecom had a bit of a run into the close yesterday... it's just being a leader, it's one of the few international stocks we've got and it's reacting to what's happening offshore," he said.

ANZ -- which was cleared late today to purchase Lloyds TSB's New Zealand asset The National Bank -- closed down 25c at 2045.

It joined fellow Australian stocks in today's slide, with Westpac down 10c at 1730 and Telstra down 7c at 560.

"It's probably the biggest hit the aussie market's had in a while, with profit taking and genuine selling on some pretty big volume across the board."

Elsewhere on the New Zealand market, Air New Zealand lost 1c to 50 after the Commerce Commission said it would delay its decision on the proposed alliance with Qantas, Auckland Airport was down 8c at 667, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 5c to 1260, F&P Appliances was up 6c at 1471, Sky TV gained 3c to 502, and Fletcher Building rose 1c to 419.

NZX closed down 7c at 447, Ports of Auckland lost 11c to 801, Steel & Tube shed 18c to 342, AMP was down 9c at 741 and jeweller Michael Hill lost 1c to 421.

Wrightson was down 1c at 144 after a joint venture including former Fonterra boss Craig Norgate failed yesterday in its two-day bid for 19.9 per cent of the rural services company.

There were 50 falls and 43 rises on the 144 stocks traded.

On Wall St, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 150.53 points to 9425.51; the broader S&P 500 fell 19.65 points to 1009.38; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 58.03 points to 1843.69.

In late afternoon trading Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 35.7 points, or 1.11 per cent, at 3172.8.

- NZPA