NZ stocks: Profit takers peg back sharemarket

12.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket headed slightly lower today in line with a drop in Telecom.

By mid-morning the NZSE-40 capital index was down 5.33 points, or 0.26 per cent, at 2079.85, on light turnover of 7.94 million stocks valued at $16.70 million.

Telecom topped the volume, with 915,500 stocks traded worth $4.64 million.

Stephen Wright of ASB Securities said the market was taking a breather today after a few good days.

"There are no company announcements, apart from Baycorp Advantage, which has been positively received."

Debt collector Baycorp Advantage, up 6c at 446, said yesterday it expected the benefits of buying the more than $A300 million ($NZ363 million) debt book of Telstra to come through in the June 2003 financial year.

"Just looks like a tiny bit of profit-taking through the leaders, but really there's no volume to speak of -- on-market stuff has been negligible this morning," Mr Wright said.

Yesterday's 25-point interest rate rise from the Reserve Bank, to lift its Official Cash Rate to 5.50 per cent, would continue to filter slowly through the market.

"It's not huge rises at any one time in interest rates, and of course there's the effect of the higher New Zealand dollar, which will help importers and be negative to exporting companies.

"But it will just be a gradual thing because no one's going to sell out of shares and to do anything in bonds -- bond rates and short-term interest rates are still fairly low," he said.

The Kiwi has been trading at near two-year highs this week, which is positive for companies such as Sky TV, which imports content, and many retailers.

On the market, Telecom shed 5c to 503, Auckland Airport lost 5c to 470, Pacific Retail was down 8c at 241 after formally receiving a full takeover offer from Logan Corporation last night, Fletcher Building shed 2c to 286, and The Warehouse was down 5c at 725.

Contact Energy lost 2c to 405, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 5c at 905, Ports of Auckland lost 5c to 675, and AMP was down 10c at 2000 after it said today that growth would be slim in the first half of 2002.

Fletcher Forests rose 1c to 21, its key shareholder Rubicon was up 1c at 58, and brewer Lion Nathan was up 3c at 559 after saying it was on track to deliver double digit earnings growth for the full fiscal 2002 year, and reported a 12.5 per cent rise in first half net profit to $A100.1 million.

There were 27 falls and 17 rises on the 101 stocks traded.

On Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 6.51 points, or 0.38 per cent, to 1725.56; the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average fell 54.46 points, or 0.53 per cent, to 10,243.68, after a 3.6 per cent gain earlier this week; and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was off 6.21 points, or 0.57 per cent, at 1091.07.

- NZPA