NZ stocks:Telecom tugs sharemarket index down

6.00pm

Top stock Telecom tugged down the benchmark sharemarket index today reflecting a downward turn in international equity markets on Friday.

But brokers said that Telecom aside, the market had a reasonable day and would have been up but for the market leader.

The benchmark NZSX-50 gross index fell 2.65 points to 2707.16, while the NZSX-All capital index eased 0.81 to 907.59. The small stocks index gained 20.27 points to 7258.76 while the top 10 index fell 2.04 to 1109.99.

"It was fairly mixed trading," said ABN Amro Craigs broker James Lock. "The market is still looking quite robust -- the underlying tone is firm."

Telecom dropped 6c to 585, on good volume of $36.5 million. Mr Lock said Telecom was coming off a good run and succumbed to reasonably large selling orders.

But others in the top tier did better. Carter Holt Harvey rose 2c to 219 ahead of an expected good result on Thursday.

Sky City jumped 11c to 486 following an announcement that it had completed the $219m purchase of Darwin's only casino. Mr Lock said retail investors found the stock's 9 per cent yield highly attractive.

AMP rose 6c to 701 with the previously beleaguered financial services company breaking above $7 for the first time since May 2003.

Cavalier Corp, which had suffered due to a surfeit of available stock in fellow carpet maker Feltex, was on the make again today with a 7c gain to 502. Feltex fell 2c to 170.

Steel & Tube to a profit upgrade with an 8c gain to 428. The company said it expected its full year net profit after tax to be in the range of $27m to $28m, up from a previous forecast $24m, which was announced in February.

Chief executive Nick Calavrias said the improved result was due to "very strong trading experienced in the months of May and June."

Investors in Fletcher Building took heart from the Steel & Tube announcement, taking the building products stock up 4c to 470.

The Warehouse, which has had a rough time of it lately, recovered 4c today to 410.

Infratil rose 6c to 308 after announcing strong passenger numbers for its two thirds owned Wellington Airport in June but mixed results for Glasgow Airport, where passenger numbers were up strongly but freight was again down.

On the downside, Auckland Airport fell 8c to 677 while Independent Newspapers fell 7c to 458.

Contact Energy closed unchanged on 595 with the market still awaiting an announcement on the sale of Edison Mission's 51 per cent stake in the energy company.

New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZOG) rose 3c to 69, after this morning announcing drilling had commenced at the Pateke-1 well off Taranaki.

Trustpower, which had to spill water in some of its dams in the flood affected Bay of Plenty, fell 10c to 470.

Smith's City made a low impact step up to the big board, remaining unchanged on 80c.

- NZPA