NZ stocks: Lack of sellers sends market to new highs

Lack of sellers and a positive steer from overseas markets sent the sharemarket benchmark index to a new high today.

Worries about the Reserve Bank hiking interest rates tomorrow were shrugged off.

As it has since early June, the market was strongly underpinned by heavyweight Telecom, which hit a fresh three-year high of 615. It closed 5c up on yesterday at 613.

The benchmark NZSX-50 closed up 12.34 points at 2768.17, while the NZSX-All capital index ended 4.53 points ahead at 932.16.

"It was pretty quiet, but it was very, very strong," Forsyth Barr Frater Williams broker David Price said. "There is a lack of selling around and good buy-side support."

His firm assessed the market as trading to the narrowest discount to valuation for a number of years and Mr Price expected the market to "consolidate" in coming days.

The Reserve Bank's comments would be followed keenly with "plenty to worry about" in the interest rate outlook.

"The market has potentially the ability to pull back from here," Mr Price said.

A number of stocks pushed to fresh peaks.

Fletcher Building stretched to new seven-year highs, hitting the magic $5 mark for the first time since September 1997. It ended up 3c at 498.

Mainfreight rose 6c to hit $2 for the first time.

Mooring Systems rose 15c to 369 after shareholders heard an upbeat outlook at the shareholders' meeting in Christchurch. The company said it still expects a net loss for the first half but was working to secure new projects.

Another smaller stock to have a good day was Affco, which jumped 4c, or 11.8 per cent, to 38c after saying its expects to more than double net profit following a strong third quarter. Brokers said it was indicative of the sector, where consolidation had improved prospects.

Sharemarket operator New Zealand Exchange (NZX) fell 10c to 855 after it posted a June half year net profit after tax of $2.03m, up $0.58m.

Hamilton Hindin Greene broker Grant Williamson said the company seemed on track to continue that improvement in underlying earnings."

Auckland Airport rose 11c to 696.

Contact Energy did not suffer after announcing a plan to introduce a long-term incentive scheme to give its top five executives a 15 per cent performance bonus. It closed up 5c up at 600.

Genesis Research fell 5c to 70 after the biotechnology company said it would lay off 29 staff at its subsidiary unit AgriGenesis BioSciences. The lay-offs were a move to cut costs, the company said.

Promina rose 6c to 436, Baycorp Advantage rose 4c to 316, Waste Management rose 4c to 477, and Tourism Holdings rose 3c to 189.

On the downside, Fisher & Paykel Appliances pulled back 4c to 478, Hallenstein Glasson fell 3c to 340, and Port of Tauranga fell 3c to 509. Australian banks Westpac and ANZ fell, with Westpac NZ down 5c to 1775 and ANZ down 3c to 1985.

Metlifecare rose 11c to 235 and Wakefield Hospital rose 11c to 446.

There were 28 million shares traded, worth $81m of which $32.2m was in Telecom.

Sixty-two stocks closed higher and 38 lower among the 164 traded.

- NZPA