NZ stocks: Sharemarket Ignores Upbeat Wall St, Falls 1 Percent

6pm

The New Zealand sharemarket fell more than 1 percent today, as offshore investors turned their back on the local heavyweight Telecom.

The benchmark NZ50 gross index closed down 20.63 points or 1.90 percent, at 1872.95 -- 3c above its low for the day.

The NZSE-40 capital index was down 0.97 percent at a 17-month low of 1859.91, while the top-10 index shed 1.40 percent to 848.34.

Turnover was light -- 17.68 million stocks valued at $47.86 million -- and topped by Telecom's $19.17 million.

Direct Broking equities manager Brett Wilkinson said the New Zealand market was the worst performer in the Asia-Pacific region today, apart from Korea.

"That is largely on the back of Telecom. Offshore buyers have disappeared, because of the uncertainty of war.

"There is little incentive to be a buyer but there is not a huge amount of panic to get out at current levels."

News yesterday that Telstra was taking full control of TelstraClear and that Telstra saw New Zealand as pivotal to its strategy was viewed as negative for Telecom.

In a contrary move, AMP which has been falling while other stocks rise, bounced 35c to 690.

That was despite a big fall overnight in the British market to fresh 7-1/2 year lows on concerns that Britain will join a possible Iraqi war. AMP has a large exposure to the UK benchmark index, the FTSE, through its investments.

"The NZSE is ignoring rumours of secret Iraqi surrender talks, and AMP would be the largest beneficiary (of a resolution)," Mr Wilkinson said.

Carter Holt Harvey was down 4c at 167 as its majority shareholder, US-based International Paper, forecast a lower-than-expected first quarter result.

Carter Holt also announced it had come to an agreement with the receivers of the Central North Island Forestry Partnership to set up a joint venture log and chip export company.

Baycorp Advantage was unchanged at 126 despite losing another executive, and The Warehouse was also steady at 574.

Fletcher Building lost 6c to 360, Sky City was down 3c at 871, Independent Newspapers Ltd lost 2c to 310 while its pay-television asset Sky TV shed 2c to 343, and Tranz Rail lost 3c to 105.

Air New Zealand was down 1c at 48, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lost 16c to 919, Auckland Airport was down 6c at 526, and Briscoe Group was down 2c at 235.

Contact Energy rose 1c to 446, Ports of Auckland gained 8c to 630, Restaurant Brands was up 4c at 140, and Richmond rose 1c to 309, below PPCS' bid of 311 per share.

There were 58 falls and 27 rises on the 127 stocks traded.

On Wall St, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 28.01 points, or 0.37 percent, at 7552.07; the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 3.42 points, or 0.43 percent, to 804.15; and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 7.42 points, or 0.58 percent, to 1278.89.

That was in contrast with Britain's FTSE-100 which slumped 4.8 percent to 3287, and Europe's top stocks which shed 110 billion euros ($NZ224 billion) of their value.

- NZPA