NZ stocks: Sharemarket drifts lower following Wall St lead

12.00pm

The sharemarket continued to drift when it opened for the week today.

The tone from Wall Street on Friday was negative and brokers here said the New Zealand market was not bold enough to buck the trend.

A United States consumer confidence survey underlined the bleak outlook for corporate earnings and added to concerns about a war with Iraq that will last longer than initially expected.

The University of Michigan's gauge of consumer sentiment fell in March to its lowest in almost a decade. Weak sentiment bodes poorly for corporate profits, as consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of activity in the US economy.

The blue-chip Dow index lost 0.7 per cent to bring losses for the week to 4.4 per cent.

Here, the NZ50 gross index was down 9.71 points at 1909.52 at noon while the top 40 capital index was down 11.13 at 1876.71.

Turnover was a modest at $24.7 million with nearly half of that in Telecom, which was down 5c to 440.

Infratil jumped 6c to 176 on news last week that price hikes at subsidiary Wellington Airport appeared to be sticking.

There were very few movements of note. AMP fell 18c to 802, Baycorp Advantage fell 3c to 126, Hallenstein Glasson fell 6c to 264, Independent Newspapers fell 4c to 306, and Tranz Rail fell 3c to 98.

Brokers said lines companies were anxiously awaiting the Commerce Commission's decision on market regulation due at 2pm. Powerco was up 1c at 128 while Horizon was unchanged at 270.

There were 15 stocks up and 48 down among the 109 traded.

- NZPA