NZ stocks: Quiet day as investors hold their breath

The New Zealand sharemarket, like other Asian bourses, held its breath today as war talk by United States President George W Bush took on a firmer tone.

The benchmark top-50 index lost 9.246 points, about half a per cent, to 1888.88, and the NZSE-40 capital index lost 10.98 points or 0.58 per cent, to 1870.91 on turnover worth $56.4 million. About $14 million of the turnover was done before the market opened.

Brokers said the New Zealand market might have been expected to do better, given the upturn in world markets on Friday night, but more war talk had scared many punters away.

At a news conference after talks with the leaders of Britain and Spain, Mr Bush said today would be the "moment of truth for the world" over plans to invade Iraq.

"Every market is quiet," said private clients broker Stephen Wright of ASB Securities.

Corporate news was scarce, providing few highlights. Power company NGC Holdings fell 2c to 142 after announcing an alliance with Plumbing World to sell LPG through its outlets, and going ex-dividend four cents per share today.

Others paying dividends today were Waste Management, down 11c to 304 (8.3cps), and Wrightson, down 3c to 110 (3.5cps).

Telecom commanded about a third of the turnover , losing 4c to 418. The stock has not traded above 500 since November.

Trans-Tasman stock AMP see-sawed during the session, hitting a session high of 818 before closing down 21c to 760, off an all-time low of 630 on Thursday.

Others in retreat included Auckland Airport, which shed 5c to 530; Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 5c at 920; and Carter Holt, 3c lower at 171.

Retailer Briscoe Group lost 10c to 225 on moderate volume including two large crossings, and fellow retailer The Warehouse was down 9c at 566.

Meat exporter Richmond was down 1c at 311, equal to the revised offer price from South Island suitor PPCS.

Following a High Court decision on Friday forcing US investor Perry Corp to sell 36 million shares in Rubicon, Rubicon was 2c down at 67.

Fellow Rubicon investor, and beneficiary of the ruling, Guinness Peat Group, was down 2c at 149. Brokers said a 9 per cent fall in GPG's annual profit to £42.5 million ($NZ124 million), largely because of foreign exchange losses, was still a reasonable result.

"Some years it does lots more deals than others, so really it's not like an ordinary company where things are relatively consistent," Mr Wright said.

On the upside, Contact Energy gained 5c to 452, and Fletcher Building gained 3c to 364.

Tranz Rail remained flat at 107 after calling for fresh expressions of interest in its Wellington passenger rail service Tranz Metro, and offering an olive branch to the formerly interested Wellington Regional Council.

Falls outnumbered rises heavily by 58 to 28 on 138 stocks traded.

Offshore, markets were more positive on Friday. Britain's FTSE-100 index rose 3.3 per cent on Friday, and the DJ Stoxx index of the top 600 European stocks closed up 3.93 per cent.

On Wall St, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.49 per cent at 7859.71, the Standard and Poor's 500 gained 0.2 per cent to 833.26, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.04 per cent at 1340.24.

- NZPA