SHAREMARKET Bargain hanters brake decline

Press, 29 January 1988, Page 21

SHAREMARKET Bargain hanters brake decline

The New Zealand sharemarket continued its slide yesterday, but bargain hunters moved in during the afternoon session, and many prices closed off their low for the day. But the market was still well down, with the Barclays index of industrial shares closing 25.41 points lower at 1847.04 and the capital index down 9.21 points to 659.15. Falls outnumbered rises about five to three, and volume was average: 7.1 million shares worth $7.8 million — equivalent to 108 c a share. Some market operators took yesterday afternoon’s rally as a sign that the market might be bottoming out. “People are starting to wake up and signs of support are creeping back in. There should be a positive follow through tomorrow (Friday),” one broker said. However, others cau-

tioned that future direction still depended on trends in United States and Australian markets. Most agreed that the announcement that the Government’s economic package would not be implemented until after October was good news for companies with significant off-shore investments, because the proposed tax regime would adversely affect these companies. Brierley came back to the top of the volume chart, with sales of 745, 682 shares, but it was symptomatic of what has happened to this sharemarket that Fletchers topped the list of the top ten by value, although it only had the seventhlargest volume. Brierley Investments lost 6c to 134, lEP dropped 5c to 127, and Tozer Kemsley Millbourn was down 10c to 180. Other investment companies to suffer from selling pressure were Equiticorp, which fell

12c to 124, Capital Markets down 3c to 95, New Zealand Equities also 3c to 115, Renouf Corporation 3c to 40, while Omnicorp at 58, and Euronational at 30c both dropped 2c and Chase eased a further 1c to 89. Robert Jones Investments continued its easier trend with a 3c fall to 95, and Wellesley also lost 3c to 62. Among blue-chip industrials Fletchers lost 6c to 424, Fisher and Paykel 12c to 393, NZI Corp 5c to 183, L. D. Nathan 5c to 598, while Ceramco sold 7c down to 295, and Smiths City Group slipped 1c to 77. Paynter dropped 5c to 115 in spite of the positive mood at yesterday’s annual meeting. Newmans also lost 5c to 95. The Barclays futures contract was more active, and 80 were traded — with the contract closing at its opening level of 1790 after dipping to 1740 earlier in the day.