NZ stocks: Shares ease, led by Telecom

12.00pm

New Zealand shares eased slightly on minimal turnover this morning, led by market heavyweight Telecom.

By just after 11am, the benchmark NZSE-40 index was down 7.09 points at 2109.47 on shares worth just $12.1 million.

Telecom, the largest listed company with a 21 per cent top forty weighting, eased 4c to 516 on turnover worth a little under a million dollars.

ASB Securities dealer Andrew Kelleher said investors were beginning to be disillusioned by the fact that United States markets have been unable to string together more than a couple of days of gains in a row -- a sign the economic recovery could be further away than hoped.

Fears of war and a spiralling confidence crisis in corporate America pummelled the broad stock market to an eight-month low on Thursday.

More dire news came after the closing bell, when technology bellwether Intel Corp cut its revenue forecast on slack demand from Europe.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished down 172.16 points, or 1.76 per cent, at 9624.64, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was beaten down 20.75 points, or 1.98 per cent to 1029.15 -- its lowest close since September 27 and the technology-laced Nasdaq was down 40.38 points, or 2.53 per cent, at 1554.88.

Fisher and Paykel Appliances leapt 35c to 975 after announcing a full year operating profit (before tax, interest and abnormal items) of $69.8 million, beating market expectations.

An early share price leap to 970 was based on a single trade, Mr Kelleher said .

The result is Appliances' first since it split from manufacturing icon Fisher and Paykel Industries in November.

After tax and excluding abnormal items, Appliances posted an operating profit of $27.3 million for the initial trading period from November 12 to March 31.

The company will pay a final dividend of 25 cents per share and a special dividend of 7.5 cents on June 28

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 15c at 910.

Baycorp Advantage fell 9c to 425. The New Zealand Herald reported this morning that Baycorp's heavy-handed tactics had driven a group of its suppliers into the arms of competitor Dun and Bradstreet.

Some of New Zealand's main debt collection companies, incensed at treatment by Baycorp, are setting up their own database of bad debtors, the paper said.

In other movements Auckland Airport was 3c higher at 438, Air NZ eased 1c to 60, Carter Holt also dropped a cent to 197, Fletcher Building fell 4c to 280, Pacific Retail dropped 4c to 300, Restaurant Brands lost 1c to 209 and The Warehouse added 5c to 745.

Falls outnumbered rises by 45 to 23 among the 109 stocks traded so far.

- NZPA