NZ stocks: Sharemarket posts more gains

It was looking like a day dominated by profit-takers but the New Zealand share market turned from negative to positive in afternoon trading.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 18.265 points, or 0.64 per cent, at 2873.139, having fallen as low as 2822.584.

Turnover was worth $107 million. There were 49 rises and 37 falls among the 114 stocks traded.

The market rose even though Telecom eased 10c to 272 and $33 million of Telecom shares were traded.

Telecom reported a 14 per cent rise in third quarter net profit to $159m, while revenue lifted 1 per cent to $1.4 billion.

Stuart Hardie, investment adviser at ABN Amro Craigs, said that for most of the day the market was taking a breather from its recent run higher in the wake of a fall on Wall Street.

There was nothing in the Telecom result for investors to get too excited about.

Retailer The Warehouse rose 10c to 385 after reporting third quarter sales down 2.8 per cent on the corresponding period last year to $383.5 million.

NZX rose 1c to 774 after announcing a takeover of NSX, a small exchange in Australia. NZX later announced plans to raise $20.1m of capital via a rights issue.

Fletcher Building rose 18c to 702, helping the index higher and Contact rose 13c to 623.

Trustpower rose 20c to 750 and SkyCity rose 11c to 304. SkyTV rose 11c to 450 and Sanford rose 15c to 570. Pike River Coal rose 11c to 102.

APN News rose 5c to 180.

Wall Street stocks slid on Thursday as investors took profits from the technology sector's recent surge and a tepid response to a government bond auction raised fears about public finances.

"The auction is big news because now it's showing that maybe the Chinese don't want our bonds. If the cost of capital for the United States becomes more expensive, then the recession is going to take that much longer to get out of," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 102.43 points, or 1.2 per cent, to 8409.85. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 12.14 points, or 1.32 per cent, to 907.39. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 42.86 points, or 2.44 per cent, to 1716.24.

- NZPA