NZ stocks: Market boosted by Telecom, media stocks

6.00pm

Media stocks looked rosier today as the sharemarket ended in slightly positive territory.

The benchmark NZSE-40 ended up 2.76 points to 2015.50 on a moderate turnover worth $69.7 million.

Turnover was dominated by Telecom which rose a cent to 507 cents on $35.2 million worth of stocks.

Direct Broking broker Sam Macdonald noted the market was "very much news-driven and order-driven" with a general lack of volume.

In media, Sky TV rose a cent to 362 and its two-thirds owner INL was up 5c to 305 after INL shareholders were told today that Sky TV was on track towards positive cashflow in fiscal 2004.

Sky was set to reduce bottom line losses in fiscal 2003 and be profitable in 2004.

"We've seen the media sector getting a bit more buoyant, particularly in Australia and that's been reflected in INL's movements over the last two days ... volume's picking up," Mr Macdonald said.

The standouts today continued to be the Fisher & Paykel companies, Appliances and Healthcare, as investors priced in hopes of some healthy half year results next week.

Appliances jumped 20c to 1110, its highest closing since the company split last year, while its sister healthcare unit rose 27c to 1112, its highest close since February.

There was also reasonable turnover of forestry or building-related stocks -- Carter Holt jumped 3c to 162 on $1.4 million worth of shares, while Fletcher Forest preference shares rose a cent to 21, as did Fletcher Building to 302 on $4.1 million turnover.

Air New Zealand dropped a cent to 53, prompting comment that investors might be worried about the time it was taking to seal an equity deal with Qantas.

The airline stock gained 6 per cent yesterday after the company said it had made a $17 million first quarter profit, and doubled its previous forecast of annual profit before unusuals to $200 million -- although that was largely what analysts predicted.

Auckland International Airport slid 7c to 538 as profit-takers swooped.

On the downside, ANZ lost 30c to 2100, Baycorp Advantage eased 8c to 335, Lion Nathan lost 19c to 590, and Turners Auctions lost 10c to 225.

Powerco was down 5c to 167 after its shareholders approved its $810 million purchase of electricity and gas assets from UnitedNetworks yesterday.

Overall there were 37 rises and 45 falls on 129 stocks traded.

Offshore, Wall St dived 1.6 per cent in mid-session but by its close, investors had shrugged off a dour United States consumer confidence survey.

The survey showed confidence was at a nine-year low this month, reflecting fears about jobs and a possible US attack on Iraq, and boosting chances the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week.

Wall St is also waiting for key reports later this week on advance gross domestic product for the third quarter and October unemployment statistics to shed more light on the pace of the economic rebound.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average closed up 0.9 points at 8368.9 and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 15 points to 1300.5.

- NZPA