SHAREMARKET Prices decline as buyers disappear

Press, 21 July 1988, Page 24

SHAREMARKET Prices decline as buyers disappear

The New Zealand sharemarket yesterday extended the losses of the previous afternoon, with the Barclays index of industrial shares closing well below the magic 2050-mark, 28.87 points down at 2030.01. The NZSE gross index fell 7.52 points to 728.09.

Falls outnumbered rises two to one, on a turnover of 10.9 million shares valued at $11.9 million — an average of 109 c a share.

Brierley Investments once again topped the turnovers, both by volume and value.. The share price fell 3c to 155. lEP lost 4c to 248, and Tozer KM 5c to 225.

Many leaders had falls in the 4-5 c price range: Fletchers 4c to 486, Elders NZFP 5c to 340, Ceramco also 5c to 194, Robert Jones Investments 4c to 113, Magnum sc, to 465, Wilson and Horton also sc, to 615, and Carter Holt 4c to 153.

Goodman Fielder and Lion Nathan were outside this range. Goodman dropped 7c to 318, and Lion 6c to 238.

Fisher and Paykel lost 5c to 330. Falls of 2c were posted by NZI at 145, Equiticorp at 83, Wellesley at 44, and Bank of New Zealand at 168, while Chase was 3c lower at 114. Capital Markets slipped 1c to 125.

Arahi had the largest fall proportionately, as the shares lost more than half their value by dropping 13c to 10c.

Mr Simon Flood, of Egden Wignall and Company, said that the market was quite resilient in the morning session and seemed to firm towards noon.

But in the afternoon the buyers, who in any case only supported the top 10 stocks, pulled the plug out of the market, with leaders especially slipping badly.

Another share to come quite noticeably off the boil was NZOG, Mr Flood said.

Sharp falls on the Tokyo market on Monday and another fall on Wall Street meant that brokers were expecting the worst, but the New Zealand market displayed some maturity yesterday. “A lack of buyers rather than selling pressure had the Barclays Index down 28 points for the day,” a Francis Allison Symes broker told N.Z. Press Association.

The Australian market was weaker in lacklustre trading which meant there was no Australian interest in leading New Zealand shares either.

September share price index futures closed little changed at 2095 against 2088 on Monday after trading through a range between 2105 and 2075 on a turnover of 84 lots.