NZ stocks: Strong performers fail to impress market

12.00pm

It was a case of Valentine's Day blues on the sharemarket this morning as even stocks with good results were left unloved by jittery investors.

At 11am the NZSE-40 capital index fell to a near two-month low of 1916.62, down 7.19 points on slim turnover worth $16.5 million.

But it was a better performance than Australia's S&P/ASX which plunged to near-three-year lows yesterday, largely due to a weak financial sector.

Wall Street also traded lower, with terrorist threats eclipsing a report saying ex-auto US retail sales grew in January at their fastest pace in more than two years.

Alan Wills, a broker with Forsyth Barr Frater Williams, said increased security alerts overseas were only part of the confidence crisis.

"There's a concern that the better parts of the economy too may be starting to peak as well. Things like retail, construction, which have really been driving the Auckland economy -- there's a concern they may be at the top of their cycle as well.

"There's a whole lot of things going on but certainly the international environment is part of it."

Solid results from the likes of Fletcher Building, Skellmax and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare went unrewarded in morning trade.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was steady at 995 after posting a 51 per cent rise in net profit to $60 million for the nine months to December 31.

Sky City Leisure, which yesterday posted a $1 million interim profit compares with a $5.5 million loss the year before, was steady at 180.

Skellmax, which was trading down 2c to 107, yesterday posted a $6.3 million after tax profit for the half year to December, 15 per cent ahead of its pro forma figures for last year.

Retailer Hallenstein Glasson was down 6c to 260 after a forecast yesterday that its interim before tax profit would be close to or marginally lower than the same period a year ago.

Trans Tasman lost one cent to 25 after yesterday posting a net loss of $1.3 million in the December year, an improvement on the $3.9 million loss in 2001.

Designer Textiles lost 7c to 100 after reporting a 25 per cent rise in interim half year profit on Wednesday, and flagging a satisfactory full year profit.

Market leader Telecom was down 2c to 443, and a "magnificent" interim profit result from Fletcher Building earlier this week could not save it from a 7c fall to 346.

Other falls included Carter Holt Harvey down 3c to 173, Briscoe down 8c to 233 and Pacific Retail down 9c to 235.

One of the few stocks to see an gain were Turners Auctions, up 5c to 275 after a 53 per cent rise in six month profit to $3 million, beating prospectus forecasts in its first result since listing in October.

Also on a rise was Air NZ up a cent to 53, Richmond up 8c to 298, and the Warehouse, up 4c to 572, which slipped to a fresh year low of 550 earlier in the day, having disappointed the market with lower than expected second quarter sales this week.

There have been 17 rises and 51 falls on 101 stocks traded so far.

At Wall St's close, jittery investors pushed the Dow Jones industrial average down 8.3 points, or 0.11 per cent, at 7749.87. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 1.31 points, or 0.16 per cent, at 817.37. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index was down 1.53 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 1277.44.

- NZPA