NZ stocks: Restaurant Brands a standout in bland market

12:00pm

The sale of 8.7 per cent of Restaurant Brands stood out in largely featureless business on the sharemarket today.

AMP Private Capital, a division of AMP, sold 8 million shares at 202, 15c below Friday's closing price, to institutions.

That left AMP Private with 10 per cent of the company. Restaurant Brands was trading at 211, down 6c, after the sale.

The NZSE-40 capital index was down 4.71 points at 2063.76 at 11.30am on total volume of 29 million shares worth $45.3 million.

The market took its negative tone from Wall Street on Friday where the Dow dropped 0.8 per cent and the Nasdaq fell 1.9 per cent.

One of this year's star performers, GPG, was up another 4c to a new high all-time of 206.

It has 21 per cent of its assets in British thread maker Coats Plc which is due to have a major rationalisation. GPG is up 28 per cent this year.

There was another sizeable crossing of $3.8 million worth of Hellaby shares traded at 250. It was up 1c at 264.

Telecom was up 3c at 481 while Telstra continued under pressure, falling 4c to 570.

Air New Zealand, which rose 45 per cent last week, was down 5c to 50c, on what brokers said was an understandable retracement.

Fisher & Paykel Appliance was down 13c at 942. Fletcher Forests was down 1c at 22 while AMP was down 15c to 2190. Ebos was down 7c at 315 while GDC was down 9c to 131 on light volume.

The Warehouse, another stock to have performed strongly this year, was initially up 3c to 758 but then backed off to be square on 355. Brisco was up 3c at 217.

Meat company Richmond was up 5c to 255, as was United Networks to 806.

Twenty-eight of the 109 stocks traded to date were up, while 37 were down.

- NZPA