NZ stocks: Sharemarket closes on a lower note for year

2.00 pm

The sharemarket ended the year on a quiet note, closing early for the New Year's Eve holiday.

The NZSE-40 capital index closed 7.61 points down to 2053.29 on a half-day's trading worth $27.1 million. For the year, however, the sharemarket had risen about 8 per cent, a performance which set the New Zealand market amongst the world's best performers.

Telecom was a key factor in today's trading, losing last Friday's gains by easing 7c to 500.

Alan Wills of Forsyth Barr Frater Williams put Telecom's recent rise down to "over-enthusiasm" for its line rental increases and the thinness of the market.

"You can't read too much into the movements at the moment," he said.

Fletcher Forests preference shares topped the turnover by volume - 8.9 million shares - while 4.6 million ordinary shares changed hands. Both prices edged down a cent to 22.

A late run on Sky City shares topped the turnover by value, sending the share price up 5c to 630 on turnover worth $5.8 million.

Lion Nathan followed, rising 2c to 565, and star performer Briscoe fell 4c to 167.

Other falls included Fisher & Paykel Appliances down 10c to 1010, Contact down 2c to 398, and the Warehouse down 5c to 660.

Rises included Air NZ up 1c to 35, Auckland Airport up 2c to 362, DB Group up 9c to 579, F&P Healthcare up 10c to 1710, NZ Refinery up 15c to 1840, Genesis Research up 13c to 289, Wilson and Horton up 15c to 855, and recent high-flyer Software of Excellence up another 8c to 338.

Ailing mining company Otter closed up 0.6c to 0.8 after Australian mining giant Normandy announced its takeover offer for Otter had gone unconditional.

So far there have been 44 rises and 33 falls on 112 stocks traded.

On other indexes, the NZSE-10 capital index dropped 6.32 points to 917.25 while the NZSCI small business index rose 15.84 points to 5722.36.

The sharemarket is now on holiday until January 3.

- NZPA