NZ stocks: Market turns in ho-hum performance, slips lower

The New Zealand sharemarket turned in a ho-hum performance today with two of its top indices tiptoeing lower despite good turnover, a broker said.

At 5pm, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 3.86 points at 2692.21, while the NZSX-All capital index was down 2.17 points at 903.54.

Turnover was $115.7 million and among the 156 shares traded were 45 rises and 53 falls.

Shares in Telecom were down 3c at 585 on turnover of $32.6m, while those in Contact Energy were up 1c at 587 on turnover of $4m.

Hamilton Hindin Greene broker Grant Williamson said it was no surprise the indices had "come off" in a session with good turnover.

Part of it could be pinned to the end of the June quarter in New Zealand yesterday, and the end of the Australian financial year.

"Volumes are light, with the exception of Telecom, and we've really lacked any news to move anything today," Mr Williamson said.

The United States Federal Reserve's move to hike its core interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.25 per cent had been factored in by the market and had little effect on trading, he told NZPA today.

Christchurch firm Ebos today confirmed it had bought speciality medical supplier Vernon-Carus Australia, its second trans-Tasman acquisition this week.

Ebos' managing director, Mark Waller, said the total cost of acquiring both Vernon-Carus and Stelmara Medical was about $8 million.

Despite the good news, Ebos shares were down 8c at 370.

"The market probably got a bit carried away after the first announcement and it (the Ebos share price) ran up a bit too quick. It's eased off today," Mr Williamson said.

"This is more good news from a very good stock."

Meanwhile, shares in Toll Holdings were up 5c at 165 after it and the Government last night hacked out a deal to put the rail network back in public ownership for $1.

"They (Toll) are hard negotiators and... they do particularly well in quite a difficult industry... from what I understand they pretty much got what they wanted," Mr Williamson said.

In other market news, Winemaker Delegats Group today placed its $35 million worth of capital notes entirely with brokers and institutions.

CanWest yesterday launched the retail opening of its initial public offering (IPO). It hopes to raise up to $135 million.

Other shares on the move included: AMP down 4c at 692, Briscoe Group up 3c at 128, Cavalier up 6c at 490, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 22c at 1298, Richmond down 11c at 320, Sanford down 5c at 465, and Michael Hill International down 5c at 595.

Overseas, the Dow Jones gained 22.05 points to 10,435.48, the Standard & Poor's 500 gained 4.55 points to 1140.75, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 12.86 points to 2047.79.

- NZPA