NZ stocks: Leaders surge in late trade

Strong buying in Telecom, Fletcher Energy and Sky TV spurred the sharemarket to a strong finish for the week.

The market traded in lacklustre fashion in the morning, but renewed interest in Telecom and Fletcher Energy led to buying across the board. Brokers said Telecom was oversold following its 19c slump.

Fletcher Energy jumped 15c to $8.95 as rumours of a last minute bid by Greymouth Petroleum to gazump the Shell-Apache bid gathered momentum. There was heavy turnover of $57.8 million in Energy.

Telecom closed 15c up at $5.18. The NZSE-40 capital index ended up 23.90 points, 1.2 per cent, at 1982.03 on total volume of 37 million shares worth $138 million.

The turnover was boosted by heavy volume in Sky TV, including the pre-market trade by CS First Boston of 3.2 million shares at $3.45.

Brokers doubted Telecom was adding to the 12.12 per cent stake it bought on Wednesday although they did not rule it out.

CSFB was the broker which bought Tappenden's holding on behalf of Telecom. Another large parcel was transacted by JB Were which, like CS First Boston, was also rumoured to be involved in last week's abortive attempt to buy 10 per cent of Sky on behalf of Telecom. Sky TV closed up 14c at $3.60.

Auckland Airport posted a December half-year profit of $28.54 million, up 15 per cent on the $24.8 million in the year ago period. The result was in line with expectations, but generally well received and AIA closed up 3c at $3.48.

"The stock has been quite strong of late," said CS First Boston's David Price. " People want certainty of earnings, and a number of companies are providing them. Auckland Airport is one."

Montana closed up 3c at $4.05, following its announcement on Thursday after the market closed that it had requested that the Market Surveillance Panel investigate Lion Nathan's recent acquisition of shares in Montana.

One result not well received was Nuplex. The chemicals company posted an unaudited December half-year net profit of $8.68 million, down 4.6 per cent.

Chairman Fred Holland said it would not be possible to recover the ground already lost but "we do expect to stabilise performance and finish close to last year's record result." Nuplex fell 33c to $3.45.

Hellaby, which reported after the market closed, ended unchanged at $1.80. Property for Industry was also unchanged at 82c after its result.

Other stocks to get a lift were AMP, 47c to $23.67, Fisher & Paykel, 11c to $8.51, Infratil, 6c to $1.35, and Tower 13c to $5.35.

Euro and Australian dollar weakness yesterday again restrained a New Zealand dollar ripe for a rally.

The kiwi closed flat at 42.97USc, but outperformed the euro and aussie. On the cross rate it was at 82.16Ac from 81.90c.

- NZPA