NZ stocks: NZ indices fall despite buying interest

6.00pm

The leading New Zealand sharemarket indices fell today despite strong buying interest in local stocks.

The benchmark NZ50 gross index closed down 0.17 per cent, or 3.73 points, at 2192.34, while the top-40 index lost 0.20 per cent to 2128.54.

Topping turnover of 27.21 million stocks, valued at $81.87 million, was $37.02 million worth of Telecom shares.

Ken Allen of Direct Broking said the New Zealand market had attracted interest today from both offshore and domestic buyers.

"The real mover today has been The Warehouse, back 15c (to 498). I suspect there was a bit of buying interest (in The Warehouse) on June 30, and there was also a bit of volume buying yesterday which has increased today," Mr Allen said.

"There's always a bit of window dressing to some extent at the year's end -- June 30 is year-end for some people.

"The market on July 1... fell back a bit, but since then it's actually held ground. It's still relatively quiet, but the market hasn't been sold off and it's reasonably steady," he said.

A potential negative, the strong New Zealand dollar, was surprisingly not reflected in falls among exporters, he said.

One key exporter is Fisher & Paykel Appliances, which was unchanged at 1340. Its sister stock Healthcare was down 12c at 1210.

Fletcher Building was up 2c at 364, Fletcher Forests gained 4c to a near-six month high of 119, Auckland International Airport rose 10c to 600, NZX was up 15c at 450, market leader Telecom was unchanged at 519, and Independent Newspapers Ltd was up 3c at 435.

Among the stocks to fall, Contact Energy lost 9c to 499, Carter Holt Harvey was down 3c at 175, Air New Zealand fell 1c to 52, and casino company Sky City lost 3c to 937.

Among the financial services stocks, AMP was up 13c at 578m ANZ rose 2c to 2112, newly listed Promina gained 2c to 270, and Westpac gained 20c to 1805.

Insurer Tower Group, which is currently picking its way towards an alternative plan to raise $210.8 million, was up 1c at 145 while 10 per cent shareholder Guinness Peat Group fell 2c to 160.

Rural services stock Wrightson Group, which announced details today of its restructuring, was up 4c at 124.

There were 59 rises and 30 falls on the 129 stocks traded.

On Wall St, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 101.89 points to 9142.84 and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 11.44 points to 993.75.

- NZPA