NZ stocks: Soggy start to week for sharemarket

The New Zealand sharemarket's strong performance over recent days fizzled out somewhat today as trading slowed and profit-taking was the principle feature.

JB Were institutional adviser Joe Gallagher told NZPA: "New Zealand's had a fantastic run over the last seven days. It's been an extremely strong-performing market helped by two stellar performances from Sky City and the Warehouse".

However, while Sky City continued its run today, gaining 4c to close at a fresh high of 939, the Warehouse ended down 4c at 526 and the rest of the market subsided slightly.

At today's close the NZSX50 gross index was down by 3.4 points or 0.15 per cent to 2184.9, and the NZSX40 capital index dropped 8.07 points or 0.38 per cent to 2122.7.

Turnover was a slim $79 million on 24.4 million shares traded. Just under a third - 7 million - were Telecom shares worth $38 million. Telecom's shares fell a cent to 523.

"Really what you're seeing is a little bit of profit-taking coming through on some of those stocks that have performed so well recently," Mr Gallagher said.

Mr Gallagher said Carter Holt Harvey and Fletcher Building continued to be strong, both finishing a cent higher, Carter Holt Harvey on 171 and Fletcher Building on 376.

He attributed Carter Holt Harvey's ongoing strength to investors "trying to get a little bit more global leverage into their portfolios".

Meanwhile, one of the better-performing stocks on the day was Hellaby Holdings, which rose 21c to a record high of 435. The company said today its annual earnings improved by $5 million after receiving a windfall from Inland Revenue.

Elsewhere bargain retailer the Warehouse had a mixed day.

"It continued to rally early," Mr Gallager said, "but ran into a bit of profit-taking.

"It hit a high of 544, which is close to where it was pre the fairly significant earnings downgrade. The stock finished down and it did look like a little bit of institutional selling came in."

NZX was down 5c to 400 today on its own board after earlier announcing it had decided on a final price of $3.60 for shares in its initial public offering.

Stocks to rise today included: Dorchester Pacific up 11c to 173, Mainfreight up a cent to 131, Michael Hill up 3c to 450, Owens Group up a cent to 98, Ports of Auckland up 13c to 785, PowerCo up a cent to 173, Promina up 6c to 268, Ryman Healthcare up a cent to 176, Sanford up 3c to 514, and Steel & Tube up 3c to 373.

Stocks to fall today included: Auckland International Airport down 3c to 597, Axa Asia down a cent to 269, Briscoe Group down 2c to 200, Cavalier down 10c to 480, Fletcher Forests down 3c to 113, Fisher & Paykel Appliances down 5c to 1305, Guinness Peat Group down a cent to 156, Independent News down a cent to 422, Infratil down 4c to 199, Lion Nathan down 21c to 625, Sky TV down 6c to 445, NGC Holdings down 2c to 165, Restaurant Brands down 2c to 141, Rubicon down 2c to 70, Telstra down a cent to 511, Tower down 4c to 148, and Tranz Rail down a cent to 90.

There were 52 rises and 41 falls on 130 stocks traded.

- NZPA