Telecom shares lift market higher

The New Zealand sharemarket edged ahead 0.2 per cent today, with mixed movements among the big players.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 6.01 points to 3231.15, with Telecom down 2c at $2.21 but Fletcher Building up 3c at $8.18 and Contact Energy up 4c at $6.12.

The lukewarm start to the week came after a flat Friday on which the index ended up just 1.7 points. A total of 112 stocks worth a modest $64.83 million were traded, with 35 rises and 44 falls.

The top stocks by volume were Telecom (8.07 million), Auckland Airport (2.9m) Guinness Peat (1.9m) and Infratil (1.6m), and the top trades in dollar terms were Telecom ($18.05m) ANZ Bank ($7.43m), Fletcher Building ($6.47m) Auckland Airport ($5.71m) and Infratil ($2.79m).

Freightways lost 6c early but finished the day down 3c at $3.06 and Port of Tauranga fell 6c to $7.00, while Mainfreight was unchanged at $6.18 and Steel & Tube was down 4c to $2.60,

Guinness Peat Group finished the day down 1c at 89, after falling 2c in early trade. It had announced that its largest investment, the Coats Group thread-making business, was over the worst of its trading slump. Coats' two main business units, Industrial and Crafts, would benefit from signs of a pick-up in consumer demand in some markets, with customers of the industrial arm restocking during the first half of the year.

Ryman Healthcare added 2c early to $2.07, and Nuplex gained 2c in early trade but finished the day down 1c at $3.32.

Salvus Strategic Investments rose 2c to 74 after Brian Gaynor's Milford Aggressive Fund, which has $70 million under management, took a 16.92 per cent stake in a private off-market transaction disclosed to the NZX today. Milford bought 3.4 million shares priced at 70c each, from Hubbard Churcher Trust Management.

Two dual-listed banks fell, with Westpac down 64c to $34.50 and ANZ down 19c to $31.41.

The Australian sharemarket lifted, propelled by coal and iron ore miners on growing hopes for strong settlements on contract prices for the year beginning in April, though the market remained within the 4500 to 4900 range it has traded in since September,.

At 1200 AEDT, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 7.1 points, or 0.15 per cent, at 4825.2 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index had risen 7.5 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 4839 points.

In the United States, mixed consumer and retail data kept stocks near break even on the final day of last week.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.1 per cent to end at 10,624.69 on Friday, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 0.02 per cent to 1149.99, and the Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.03 per cent to close at 2367.66.

For the week, the Dow gained 0.6 per cent, the S&P 500 climbed 1 per cent and the Nasdaq advanced 1.8 per cent.

- NZPA