NZ stocks: Shares lower but little affected by US power outage

The New Zealand share market opened in positive territory this morning before giving up its gains, led downward by market leader Telecom.

Shortly after midday the NZSX-50 gross index was 8.78 points or 0.4 per cent lower at 2193.55, while the NZSX-40 capital index was 7.93 points or 0.37 per cent lower at 2121.22.

In New York stocks rose yesterday as investors cheered better-than-expected government data on employment and trade that pointed to an improving US economy.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average finished 0.42 per cent higher at 9310.56, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.66 per cent, to 990.51.

However, shortly after the regular session's closing bell, power outages struck major US and Canadian cities, including the metropolitan New York area and Detroit, as well as Toronto.

In London, Britain's FTSE 100 share index closed up 1.37 per cent at 4237.8, its highest finish for almost a year as rising optimism in an earnings revival boosted banking, telecoms and other economically sensitive stocks .

The German and French markets also closed higher and Japan's Nikkei average jumped yesterday afternoon to end its fifth straight winning session at a one-month high.

JB Were institutional advisor Joe Gallagher said New York's power outage was having minimal impact on the local market.

"I think there's probably a slight impact, it just throws up the vulnerability of equity markets when these things happen, but it's not too much selling on the back of it."

A dip in market leader Telecom's stock was probably responsible for the easing of the indices, Mr Gallagher said.

By midday Telecom was 7c lower at 510.

Yesterday, competitor Vodafone announced it would spend "hundreds of millions" of dollars building a high speed "3G" mobile phone and wireless data network.

"It's definitely a negative short term sentiment issue," Mr Gallaher said.

"We'd already factored in that Telecom would have to build a 3G network but it just brings that forward by a year".

Meanwhile jewellery retailer Michael Hill fell 10c to 440 shortly after announcing its June year net profit fell 9 per cent to $11.57 million.

Fletcher Building, which enjoyed gains over the past two sessions after posting a better than expected result on Wednesday, was also down, losing 5c to 423 by noon in what Mr Gallagher said was probably profit taking after its good run.

Stocks to rise by midday included: AMP up 4c to 514, BayCorp Advantage up 3c to 197, Cavalier Corp up 4c to 489, Guinness Peat Group up 3c to 168, Hallenstein Glassons up 3c to 290, Nuplex up 4c to 395, and Rubicon up a cent to 68 .

Stocks to fall included: Auckland International Airport down 6c to 628, Contact Energy down 2c to 487, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 5c to 1220, Independent Newspapers Ltd down 2c to 418, Port of Tauranga down 3c to 437, Sky City down 6c to 907, and Steel & Tube down 3c to 377 Telstra down 2c to 526, and the Warehouse down 8c to 516.

Rises outnumbered falls 31 to 28 on 107 stocks traded by 11.30am.Turnover was light at $15.9 million.

- NZPA