NZ stocks: Wall St bloodbath puts stocks in the red

The NZSE-40 ended the week down more than 1 per cent but did not perform too badly considering the blood on the US sharemarket floor.

Turnover totalled a healthy $159.04 million on 50.24 million stocks traded, with Fletcher Energy making up about two-thirds of that with $96.56 million from 11.27 million stocks traded.

The NZSE-40 capital index ended down 20.06 points, or 1.02 per cent, at 1938.89.

David Fergusson of Greenslades said the New Zealand dollar's recovery by 1USc yesterday was almost as significant as downward trends in overseas markets.

"We ended down 20 points, which I don't think in the context of the drop in the Nasdaq and the Dow was too much of a bad effort," Mr Fergusson said.

Fletcher Energy suffered a major drop, down 22c at $8.55.

"The market's still reasonably focused on the Fletcher Energy situation. With the exchange rate moving upwards we are seeing that affect the valuation of Capstone," he said.

Capstone shares fell $US2.00 overnight to $US18.50.

"People are certainly keeping an eagle eye on the Capstone price and the exchange rate, and that's obviously affecting the final cash valuation of that Fletcher Energy deal. I think we are seeing the price of Energy reflecting the opportunity cost of waiting until the deal is finalised early next year."

The main riser of the day was Montana, up 19c at $3.90, as it is appraised for sale to brewer Lion Nathan, down 5c at $5.30.

Lion Nathan has offered between $3.20 and $3.80 a share for Montana stock.

Technology group Advantage was down 3c at $1.32 after announcing that its profit before tax and goodwill was $3.8 million in the September quarter, including a $2 million surplus on the sale of its stake in Commsoft.

Fletcher Building shares were down 6c at $1.84.

North Island meat processor Affco Holdings eased 4c to 43c after announcing it had more than doubled its after-tax profit to $15.2 million for the year to September 30.

Telecom was down 10c at $5.64, Telstra dropped 11c to $7.90, and Warehouse was down 10c at $5.85.

Vending Technologies dropped 16c to $1.51 and INL shed 10c to $3.20 after announcing it would fold its publication Grace magazine

Brierley dropped 2c to 31c and Bendon shed 5c to $1.85 after its announcement on Thursday of a $21.9 million net profit for the first six months of this year.

DB Group rose 15c to $4.00.

Falls outnumbered rises 65 to 30 on 136 stocks traded.

- NZPA