NZ stocks: Shares ease in quiet trade

The New Zealand sharemarket eased a tad this morning in quiet trade.

At 11.35 am the benchmark NZSE-40 index was down 4.67 points to 20 90.46, on turnover worth $33.5 million -- much of that off-market.

"The market opened up just a little easier," ABN Amro institutional dealer Nigel Scott said.

"The on-market action is a little bit quiet."

Tourism Holdings Ltd slipped 19c to 108 after reporting a slump in profit to $2.6 million from $6.6 million for the half year to December.

The company said it was badly hit by the events surrounding September 11 and the collapse of Ansett Australia.

In the interests of preserving its balance sheet strength Tourism Holdings said it would forego an interim dividend. The situation would be reviewed at the end of the financial year on June 30.

Mr Scott said the result was a "shocker".

Air New Zealand rose 1c to 36c after announcing it has appointed four new directors and reduced its board size to 8 members.

The new-look board includes former head of the Council of Trade Unions, Ken Douglas.

The other appointments are Jane Freeman, a director of Publicis NZ and until recently general manager of esolutions and new product development at Telecom, Warren Larsen, former Dairy Board chief executive and John McDonald, former treasurer of Fletcher Challenge Ltd.

Market leader Telecom fell 4c to 514. The Securities Commission yesterday cleared the telco of any wrongdoing in its accounting treatment of the $28 million it made on the sale of bandwidth capacity.

Fletcher Forests head shares were steady at 25c, and its preference shares were up 1c to 25c, after the company yesterday posted a $302 million loss for the six months to December. The result was hit by a decision to write off the remainder of a $349 million loan relating to the company's failed Central North Island Forest Partnership.

Sky City eased 6c to 600 after yesterday reporting its bottom-line profit for the six months to December 31 fell to $10.1 million from $33.2 million, as it wrote off $16.7 million in goodwill associated with Force and $11.1 million as its share in the subsidiary cinema business' troubled Argentine investment.

In other downward movements, Carter Holt Harvey eased a cent to 194, Briscoe Group was down 2c at 158, BIL was down a cent at 45c and Contact Energy slipped a cent to 397.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances was down 2c at 934 and its Healthcare cousin was down 15c at 1105.

Meat processor Richmond was up a cent at 232 despite saying yesterday its performance for the half year to March 31 would be below expectations.

Falls outnumbered rises by 33 to 25 among the 108 stocks traded so far.

In the US stocks fell for the first time in three days after a report showing a bigger-than-expected drop in consumer confidence dented optimism the economy is rebounding. Intel Corp and General Electric led the drop.

The Dow dropped 31.35, or 0.3 per cent, to 10113.88. The S&P 500 fell 0.04 to 1109.39. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 2.91, or 0.2 per cent, to 1766.97.

- NZPA