NZ stocks shed some gains

Friday, 25 July 2008

July 25 - Close: The New Zealand sharemarket gave up some of the gains from  the previous two days, but closed looking far less sickly than its Australian counterpart.

The benchmark NZX-50 index dropped 33.07 points, or 1 percent, today to end the week at 3254.16.

Yesterday it had surged 2.7 percent -- 85.6 points -- in its biggest percentage gain for the year after the Reserve Bank cut official interest rates. That followed a gain of 1.8 percent, or 58 points, on Wednesday.

Among the 122 stocks traded today, falls outnumbered rises by 48 to 35, with turnover of 35.5 million worth $143.4m.

When the New Zealand sharemarket closed today its Australian counterpart was down 3.8 percent on the day after the National Australia Bank reported further losses related to its exposure to complex US mortgage-backed debt securities.

The Australian bourse was also following Wall Street, which tumbled more than 2 percent due to fears about the US economy following a weaker than expected report on the US housing market.

In Japan, the Nikkei average was down 1.9 percent around the time the market closed in this country, after gaining about 6 percent this week, as investors sold exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp on concerns about the health of the US economy and a stronger yen.

While the New Zealand market was down, "we're bucking the trend a little bit", James Smalley of Hamilton, Hindin, Greene said.

"We're sort of charting our own course for a change, with the change in interest rate policy from the Reserve Bank helping the market in general."

Some of the big movers from yesterday, although down today were still holding onto much of their previous gains, Mr Smalley said.

"If it hadn't been for those weak offshore leads we probably would have expected another positive day."

Top stock Telecom actually gained 2c today, to 349, after being one of the few stocks in the top 50 to slip yesterday when it was down 3c.

After gaining 33c yesterday, No 2 stock Contact Energy lost 35c today, taking it to 812. No 3 stock Fletcher Building lost 22c today to 669 after having gained 36c yesterday.

Reflecting steep declines in the financial sector in Australia, dual-listed ANZ was down 194c to 2301, AMP shed 60c to 850 and Westpac was down 120c to 2750.

Among other falls in this country today, Air New Zealand lost 4c to 124, Fisher & Paykel Appliances 4c to 207, F&P Healthcare 5c to 257, Freightways 7c to 300, and Hallenstein Glasson 7c to 280.

Mainfreight shed 10c to 655, Nuplex 5c to 530, Port of Tauranga 6c to 654, Sanford 8c to 530, and Sky TV 4c to 450.

Among stocks to rise, Auckland Airport gained 4c to 192, Infratil 9c to 224, and Trustpower 10c to 770.

Stocks rising 2c included Restaurant Brands to 74, Ryman Healthcare to 166, Sky City to 327, and Tourism Holdings to 136.

NZPA