NZ stocks: Sharemarket investors keep the faith

12.00pm

Investors showed faith in the sharemarket in early trading today in the aftermath of yesterday's liquidation of Wellington-based discount broker Access Brokerage.

By 11.35am today the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was up 3.82 points to 2731.99 while the NZSX-All capital index was up 0.92 points to 909.04.

NZX chief executive Mark Weldon yesterday declared Access in default after it was discovered the firm did not have enough funds in its trust account to meet client obligations. At this stage it looks as if about 710 of Access' clients are out of pocket to the tune of some $5 million.

"This is an event which is extremely localised at a brokerage it's not an industry-wide phenomenon by any stretch and we are confident it's ring fenced there," Mr Weldon told Radio New Zealand this morning.

Although the overall market held up well, NZX shares took a dive this morning, down 30c, or 3.6 per cent, to 805.

Top stock Telecom rose 2c to 565, on turnover worth $13.5 million. Total market turnover by 11.35am was worth $22.7 million.

Of the 120 stocks traded there were 33 rises and 30 falls.

ASB Securities head of advisory Stephen Wright said trading was light due to the Labour Day market holiday in the US, which took out a large portion of the market's offshore investors.

"They never leave orders on a Friday night before a long weekend, because anything might happen in Iraq or anywhere around the world," Mr Wright said.

He said the sharemarket was in a holding pattern, with the New Zealand dollar range-bound and no major announcements due ahead of the expected Reserve Bank rate rise on Thursday and release of The Warehouse's full year result on Friday.

In other news this morning, biotech investment firm Pure New Zealand was suspended from trading after it failed to file its preliminary announcement for its annual report, which had been due on August 30. The stock last traded at 2.5c.

Briscoe was down 1c at 140 after yesterday reporting a net profit of $6.72 million for the half-year to July, down almost a third on the same period last year.

Other stocks on the move this morning included: Cavalier down 1c at 490, Carter Holt Harvey up 1c at 235, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 5c at 1365, Toll NZ up 2c at 228, Michael Hill Jeweller up 8c at 689 and Fletcher Building up 4c at 530.

- NZPA