NZ stocks: Market shows signs of holiday lethargy

12.00pm


The New Zealand sharemarket was this morning showing signs of going into summer holiday mode early, with flat directionless trade leaving the benchmark indices fractionally lower.

By 11.30am the NZSX-50 gross index was 4.34 points or 0.18 per cent lower at 2371.65, while the NZSX-40 capital index was 1.87 points or 0.08 per cent lower at 2200.96.

There were 34 rises and 31 falls on 111 stocks traded on turnover worth $34.20 million.

Pay TV operator Sky TV topped the turnover table with $11.20 million worth of shares traded by 11.30am. Sky TV shares were 2c higher at 525.

Amro Craigs Equities retail adviser Bryon Burke said there seemed to be no real direction to the market at moment, with little corporate news to spark interest.

"It seems to be suffering from a bit of Christmas lethargy where, due to a lack of buyers and sellers, prices are going up and down.

"The quotes are sometimes a bit wider and prices are moving because of the lack of investors in the market at the moment."

Mr Burke said energy retailer and generator TrustPower was a good example. It was up 5c to 600 in early trade, "but on just 1000 shares, and it was down 5c yesterday", he said.

Elsewhere, major stocks Carter Holt Harvey, Telecom, and Contact Energy were all down by a cent or two.

At 11.30am Carter Holt Harvey was down 1c to 182, Contact was down 2c at 530, and Telecom was down 2c at 511.

Air New Zealand was up 2c to 47. Yesterday the airline announced changes to its team that manages the day to day running of the airline, following its recently-released four-year strategic review.

Troubled trans-Tasman financial services giant AMP regained 2c in morning trade to 638. Yesterday AMP lost 12c to 636 on fears of a shortfall in demand for the company's A$1.2 billion ($1.38 billion) rights issue and uncertainty about its soon-to-be-spun-off British arm.

Tower Group was down 1c to 126 after announcing a management reshuffle at its Australian businesses yesterday.

Discount retailer the Warehouse was up 4c to 507 after better than expected retail sales figures yesterday.

Software of Excellence was continuing its good recent run climbing 13c to 145. Yesterday the company added 17c.

Other stocks to move by 11.30am included: BayCorp Advantage down 2c to 296, Cavalier Corp down 2c to 542, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare down 9c to 1185, Genesis Energy up 2c to 112, goldminer GRD up 18c to 230, Mainfreight up 2c to 140, Pacific Retail Group down 5c to 235, Sanford down 4c to 505, and Sky City Leisure down 5c to 115.

Meanwhile on overseas markets, New York's Dow Jones industrial average yesterday dipped 9.27 points, or 0.09 per cent, to 9914.15, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index eased 3.23 points, or 0.30 per cent, to 1056.95, and the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index sagged 12.13 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 1896.19.

In London, the FTSE 100 index closed 44.2 points or 1.01 per cent lower at 4335.4, resuming a losing streak which has seen it trail back from 15-month highs above 4400 since last week.

In Frankfurt, The DAX index ended at 3820.92 points, down 25.26 points or 0.66 per cent, and in Tokyo, the Nikkei average fell 2.11 per cent or 213.72 points to close at 9910.56.

- NZPA