NZ stocks: Telecom drags market down in a day of mixed trading

The New Zealand sharemarket today slumped below its recent highs in a market featuring plenty of mixed trading on good volume.

At 5pm, the benchmark NZSX-50 was down 14.09 points at 2462.73, while the NZSX-40 capital index was down 10.89 points at 2291.86.

There was $107.8 million worth of shares traded on volume of 43.8 million. Among the 147 stocks traded were 54 rises and 41 falls.

ABN Amro Craigs broker James Lock said a dip in Telcom shares -- down 11c to 532 -- had weighed heavily on the market.

Telecom saw $31.2 million worth of shares traded on volume of 5.8 million.

Electricity companies Contact Energy and Powerco continued to enjoy profit taking after spot prices soared when high voltage lines between the North and South Islands were cut on Friday.

Contact shares closed up 3c at 555, while those in Powerco were up 3c at 205.

Paradoxically, shares in TrustPower were down 10c at 675.

Mr Lock said this mixed trading was the story of the day as was evident in the shares of port companies.

Ports of Auckland was down 7c at 773, while Port of Tauranga was up 7c at 437.

"It was really just the market moving on orders of the day," Mr Lock told NZPA.

"I think the market is still consolidating on recent gains and this week quite a few more participants are in the market, reassessing what's happened over that Christmas break."

Mixed trading was also a feature among retail stocks.

The Warehouse was down 10c at 529, Michael Hill International was unchanged at 499, Hallenstein Glassons was up 1c at 283, and Briscoe Group was down 3c at 170.

Shares on the rise today included: Air NZ up 1c at 48, Austral Pacific up 8c at 215, DB Breweries up 5c at 820, Nuplex up 5c at 570, NZX up 15c at 625, and Promina up 6c at 386.

Among those on the slide were: Ebos down 5c at 340, Hellaby down 5c at 680, Carter Holt Harvey down 2c at 195, Ryman Health down 3c at 312, and Tranz Rail down 1c at 158.

There was $22,797 worth of shares traded on the New Zealand Alternative Exchange today.

Overseas, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 28.81 points to 10,487.70, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rallied 25.19 points to 2112.11 at the closing bell.

- NZPA