NZ stocks: Market at fresh high despite quiet session

The New Zealand sharemarket managed to reach a fresh high today despite a typically quiet Monday session.

The benchmark NZSX-50 gross index closed up 6.73 points, or 0.30 per cent, at 2267.60, although it hit a new high of 2270.38 during the day. The index has been on the march upwards since about a month ago.

The top-40 index was up 0.07 per cent at 2168.70.

Topping turnover of 22.48 million stocks, valued at $76.74 million, was Telecom's 5.9 million stocks worth $30.6 million.

Philip Hardie Boys of First NZ Capital said the main action in financial markets today was played out in the currency.

The New Zealand dollar rose more than 1 US cent over the weekend after comments on world currency markets at the G7 meeting in Dubai, although it lost about half that gain today.

"The currency's pretty strong and after that we've had a little bit of profit-taking in a couple of stocks -- Auckland International Airport, I suspect," Mr Hardie Boys said.

Auckland Airport closed down 11c at 665 after hitting a high of 680 during the session.

"No particular reason, they've had a very, very good run and hit all-time highs last week. Volume was light," he said.

Telecom rebounded from a sell-off late last week to close up 4c at 521, while casino company Sky City, which went ex-dividend to the tune of 26c per share, closed down 25c at 845 on healthy turnover of more than one million stocks.

"It's a pretty featureless market otherwise, volume is very light."

The other stocks to go ex-dividend were AMP NZ Office Trust (3.48cps), down 2c at 80; Briscoe Group (2.75cps), down 2c at 181; and Nuplex (10.5cps), down 13c at 384.

Carter Holt Harvey was down 1c at 174, Designer Textiles lost 2c to 94, Lion Nathan shed 2c to 603, NZ Refining was down 50c at 1590, and Restaurant Brands lost 1c to 127.

Contact Energy was up 4c at 480, Fisher & Paykel Appliances gained 6c to 1485, Fletcher Building rose 2c to 417, Fletcher Forests was up 1c at 123, meat exporter Richmond was up 10c at 305 and Trustpower rose 8c to 499.

Takeover target Sky TV was up 1c at 491 while suitor Independent Newspapers Ltd was up 2c at 454.

This morning, transport company Mainfreight confirmed it had upped its takeover offer for logistics company Owens, making its bid more likely to succeed.

That provided a boost for Owens, up 4c at 108, although Mainfreight was down 1c at 129.

There were equal numbers of rises and falls -- 44 -- on the 143 stocks traded.

On Wall St the Dow Jones industrial average slipped 14.60 points to 9644.53, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was off 3.32 points at 1036.26, and the Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 3.81 points to 1905.74.

- NZPA