NZ stocks: Quiet morning as sharemarket creeps up

12.50 pm

Following on from Wednesday's lower close, the New Zealand sharemarket opened weaker and extremely quiet today but it improved slightly during the morning.

There was a poor showing on world sharemarkets overnight where all the major ones - except Hong Kong - suffered double and three-figure losses and New York was on holiday for Independence Day.

"Our market was desperately quiet in early trading, when you take away the volumes traded before the open," Geoff Brown at JP Morgan Chase said.

Most of the pre-market activity was in Telecom which was trading lower and accounted for almost the entire fall for the index.

Telecoms generally were dragged lower overnight when Marconi shares were suspended in London pending a trading update.

Although it is a telecom-equipment maker, it was sufficient to create nervousness for telecoms, Mr Brown said.

Marconi announced - after the close - that it expects to cut 4000 more jobs from its world-wide workforce after the 4000 lost since April.

At 11am the NZSE-40 index stood at 2047.84 - down 3.50 points - or 0.17 per cent - but up from the opening 2045.17.

The NZSE-SCI capital index was 4.74 points - or 0.09 per cent - lower, at 5520.66 and down slightly from the opening 5520.96.

Turnover at 11am was 7.50 million shares worth $27.39 million and Telecom accounted for $9.38 million of it.

Falls outnumbered rises by 38 to 24 of the 115 shares traded.

Market heavyweight Telecom - which has a 22 per cent weighting in the Top 40 index - was 6c lower at 539 and Telstra was 3c weaker at 676 on turnover of 134,425 shares, worth $913,603.

Auckland International Airport, continued its slide with a drop of 3c to 351 after the prospect of price controls was mooted by regulatory authorities earlier in the week.

Lion Nathan gained a cent to 551 and Montana Group recovered some of yesterday's losses with a rise of 35c to 470 after it said today it had received notice of the new $4.80 a share bid made by British spirits giant Allied Domecq.

Allied Domecq gave notice of its intention to make the offer on Monday and said it was better than the weighted average $4.28 a share offer from rival bidder, Lion Nathan.

Lion had announced plans for a partial offer for 11 per cent of Montana at $5.50 a share, to be followed - if successful - by a bid for the rest at $3.70 a share.

Forestry and biotechnology firm, Rubicon, which listed on the exchange in March, hit a record 75 earlier in the week but was a cent lower at 72.

Contact Energy picked up a couple of cents to 308 and power company, Trustpower was unchanged at 310.

Tranz Rail was unchanged at 400, compared with a 2001 high of 428 in March and a low of 350 in June.

Casino operator, Sky City rose 5c to 1105, Natural Gas Corp was steady at 92, WestpacTrust was shed 5c to 1605, Air NZ's domestic A shares were a couple of cents lighter at 107 and the freely held B shares were unchanged at 150.

Fisher and Paykel was 5c lower at 1180 and Brierley Investments was unchanged at 67.

Fletcher Building was steady at 246, as was Fletcher Forests at 29.

Meat exporter, Richmond, shed 4c to 240, Pay TV operator Sky TV was unchanged at 325, part owner, Independent Newspapers gained 5c to 370 and wood-products firm, Carter Holt Harvey was unchanged at 175.

The Warehouse lost 3c to 540, Waste Management was 10c lighter at 355, drinks company Frucor was a cent lower at 150, financial-services company Tower was unchanged at 530, AMP lost 29c to 2612 and Baycorp was unchanged at 1220.

- NZPA