NZ stocks: Market continues to drift

12.00pm

The sharemarket repeated yesterday's pattern of drifting in no man's land during morning trading today.

The NZSX-50 gross index, now the only benchmark index after NZX ceased publication today of the 47-year old NZSX-40 capital index, was up 0.57 points at 2593.59 points at 11.35am.

The local market took its lead from Wall Street which also drifted sideways.

Turnover was once again dominated by Telecom, which made up $18.7 million of the market's $30.3 million turnover. It was unchanged on 581.

Restaurant Brands added 4c to yesterday's 1c gain to reach 127 despite posting a 27 per cent fall in annual net profit yesterday. Analysts had feared an even worse report and they said there were signs of improvement at KFC in the last quarter.

Contact Energy slipped back 2c to 557 following a 10 per cent surge this week in the wake of the canning of the Project Aqua hydro scheme.

However, TrustPower gained another 14c today to a new high of 729.

Fletcher Building rose 1c to 444 despite broking firm Macquarie taking a pessimistic view on the stock.

Analyst Stephen Hudson put a $4.12 valuation on it, citing lower immigration and possibly fewer government contracts behind his valuation.

Hallenstein Glasson was up 3c to 303.

Recently listed Pyne Gould rose 4c to 574, Mainfreight rose 2c to 180, while Fisher & Paykel Appliances fell 3c to 430. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 15c to 1210.

There were 317 rises and 174 falls among the 104 stocks traded.

- NZPA