NZ stocks: Heavyweights lift market 0.6pc

NZPA - The sharemarket was lifted 0.6 per cent today by four of the market's biggest stocks - Telecom, Carter Holt Harvey, Contact Energy and Fletcher Building.

The NZSE-40 capital index, to be replaced by a top 50 index next month, closed 13.44 points up at 1985.39, while the top 10 index gained over 1 per cent, 9.93 points to 893.80, and the small stocks index gained 9.54 points to 5709.63.

Telecom rose 8c to 453 and at one stage traded at 458 after it reported a second quarter and second half net profit of $155 million and $301 million respectively. The result was at the high end of expectations with forecasts averaging $149 million and $296 million.

Joe Gallagher of JB Were said Telecom's result was mixed.

"It's beaten guided down expectations. It was a very solid result helped mainly by cost out but the lack of revenue growth was potentially an issue."

"The market had a view that this result was going to be a bad one and it has come out okay. Given the fact the result is on the table, Telecom has become increasingly attractive on a regional basis where Telstra is still due to report."

Brokers reported some switching out of Telstra and into Telecom.

Trading in Telecom comprised $35.9 million of the market's $69.4 million turnover.

Fletcher Building shot up 8c to 361 and touched 363, its highest level in nearly five years. The stock has been bought on expectations of a very strong result on February 12, brokers said.

Carter Holt rose 3c to 175 with a further uptick in forestry commodity prices, while Contact Energy rose 2c to 422.

Air New Zealand continued to show good strength with a 1c rise to 57.

AMP only gained 5c to 1006 despite a 3.4 per cent gain in London overnight, including strong gains by life companies following the British watchdog announcing it would consider granting waivers to insurers if companies feared they were close to breaching solvency margins.

There was good retail interest in Tower, in which GPG announced yesterday it had increased its stake to nearly 10 per cent this week. Tower rose 4c to 212 while GPG closed 1c easier at 148.

Michael Hill, which had eased back in the last two weeks, recovered 7c to 607.

But Sky City Entertainment continued to retreat, losing 8c to 855, and is now down over 5 per cent on its 901 peak hit at the end of last month.

The market overlooked another piece of bad news last night for rail operator Tranz Rail, which held steady on 139.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's said Tranz Rail had jeopardised the removal of a downward indicator on its credit rating by looking into shifting its interisland ferries to Clifford Bay from Picton.

Brokers said there was good interest in Tranz Rail.

Fabric maker and marketer Designer Textiles added another 7c to 120 on news it planned to return about $6 million to shareholders by way of a pro-rata share buyback.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare gained 2c to 1020 after its Australian rival Resmed reported an 18 per cent jump in net profit in the December quarter. Resmed gained A9c to A572 in late Australian trading.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose 10c to 1035.

Others to gain included: Auckland Airport, 6c to 545, Independent Newspapers, 6c to 309, Fletcher Forests, 2c to 111, Cavalier, 15c to 375, Hellaby, 6c to 343, Port of Tauranga, 11c to 448, and Westpac NZ, 6c to 1440.

Against the trend, Sanford lost 8c to 472, Lion Nathan fell 5c to 605, NZ Refining lost 16c to 1799 and Kirkcaldies lost 10c to 380.

There were 57 rises and 44 falls among the 136 stocks traded.

- NZPA