NZ stocks: Tower the salient point in lacklustre day's trade

6.14pm

Financial services firm Tower was the salient point in an otherwise dull market today, its shares dumping 13c despite news of a marked turnaround in its September year result.

Tower's after-tax profit for the September year was $54.6 million, from a loss of $149m last year.

Shares in the firm, which did not issue a dividend, closed 13c lower at 217 on turnover of $3.3m.

Yesterday, Tower said it would list its Australian funds management business on that country's sharemarket, calling the spun-off unit Australian Wealth Management.

ABN Amro Craigs broker Matt Willis said the story of the day was the negative reaction to Tower's result.

"I think the fact they haven't declared a dividend is disappointing given there was some expectation they would," Mr Willis said.

"The anticipated spin-off of the wealth management business makes it (Tower) a much cleaner takeover target... despite the rhetoric from the company," he said.

There was a takeover premium built into the price, Mr Willis told NZPA today.

Tower's fall came amid a dull day's trade on the sharemarket, which saw two of its top indices head south.

The benchmark NZSX-50 was down 6.27 points at 2900.62, while the NZSX-All capital index was down 0.80 of a point at 959.30.

"I think the general tone of the market is pretty positive. I still think there's cash out there trying to find a home, but you're going to have your down days," he said.

"I don't think there's any broad theme driving the market down."

Total market turnover was $131.3m, with 45 rises and 55 falls among the 156 stocks traded.

Top stock Telecom was up 1c at 591 on turnover of $84.8m.

"What will re-rate Telecom is news of a higher payout ratio, a special dividend in time, or a perception that it will do both," Mr Willis said.

Contact Energy was down 3c at 623 and Carter Holt Harvey was down 1c at 215.

Fletcher Building was unchanged at 589 after a recent run of profit-taking.

New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZOG) rose 1c to 102 after a recent run up.

"The perception is that it (NZOG) is getting closer and closer to becoming an actual producer, rather than an explorer of energy assets," Mr Willis said.

"It does have the potential to be a real player in both coal and gas production," he said.

ANZ Bank was down 20c to 2200 while Westpac NZ was down 1c at 2000.

Among the retail stocks: Briscoe was down 1c at 127, Hellaby was up 17c at 635, Pumpkin Patch was up 3c at 235, and The Warehouse was down 7c at 368.

Other stocks on the move included: AMP down 11c at 749, Lion Nathan down 10c at 840, NZX up 20c at 820, TrustPower down 10c at 550, and Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 5c at 423.

Overseas, the Dow Jones fell 62.22 points to 10,488.02, the broad Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 8.36 points to 1175.45, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 15.47 points to 2078.62.

- NZPA