Profit takers send NZ sharemarket down

By NZPA

Thursday 11th January 2007

The sharemarket was unable to sustain early strength today as investors took profits.

Two notable recent gainers, Contact Energy and Ryman Healthcare suffered most, with the power company closing down 9c from its record high to $8.55. It traded as low as $8.40. Ryman ended down 22c on $10.99.

The benchmark NZX-50 index, having hit a record of 4074.63 during trading yesterday, fell 14.43 points, 0.4%, to 4049.65.

Volume was modest at 29.3 million, worth $79.7 million.

"We're seeing profit taking in a number of stocks which have had big moves," said UBS broker Richard Leggat.

Against the trend, Air New Zealand continued to fly from strength to strength. It rose 3c to $2.05 with investors reasoning the drop in fuel prices would further assist profits.

Guinness Peat Group broke its recent shackles, rising 4c to $2.50. Goldman Sachs JBWere broker Joe Gallagher said GPG was thought to have done well from the split of Tower and has also been helped along by the recent fall of the New Zealand dollar.

Tower closed up 3c to $2.23.

Market leader Telecom initially continued its good run, sparked by leaks that its directories business sale was looking good, but it closed the session down a couple of cents on $4.87. Gallagher said potential negative news on the regulation of mobile phone prices was tempering enthusiasm.

Fletcher Building dropped 12 to $10.53 on top of a 20c loss in thin trading yesterday.

Freight company Mainfreight rose 7c to $7.85.

TrustPower, suffering as a result of high hydro lake levels and low wholesale power prices, fell 10c to $7.40.

L&M Petroleum, which plans to look for oil and gas in Southland, debuted at 25c but closed on 23c.

The company raised $A20 ($NZ22.9) million in an initial public offering (IPO) last month, offering 100 million shares at A20c (NZ22.9c), and will be dual-listed in this country and Australia.

Renaissance, seller of Apple products, got a boost from hype around Apple's new mobile phone announced yesterday. It gained 5c to $1.55.

Other small stocks to gain included Methven, up 8c to $2.38 and Finzsoft, up 9c to $1.16.

CanWest MediaWorks, speculated to be on the block, rose 6c to $2.24.

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