NZ stocks: Market continues to tiptoe higher

12.00pm

The sharemarket tiptoed higher through this morning's session, following a broad trend set by United States market indices last night.

At 11.30am, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 5.64 points at 2627.77, while the NZSX-All capital index was up 1.94 points at 890.65.

Top stock Telecom shares were down 2c at 560.

The $20.4 million worth of Telecom shares traded represented 46 per cent of the market's $44.3 million turnover so far today.

Among the 108 stocks traded were 37 rises and 18 falls.

Hamilton Hindin Greene broker Grant Williamson said trading was extremely light this morning in a session that was shaping up to be slim on corporate news.

"There's just no volume anywhere," Mr Williamson told NZPA today, noting two 25 basis point interest rate rises by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand this year had put "a dampener" on the market.

The official cash rate is currently at 5.50 per cent.

"Investors are sitting on the sidelines. A lot of people feel that the market just doesn't have the same value that it did six months ago," Mr Williamson said.

"They (investors) are struggling to find stocks to buy and I really think a lot of investors are waiting for the reporting season to see which stocks still offer that value," he said.

Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) chairman John Maasland today warned that proposed regulatory changes and energy supply concerns could see the company hold off future investments in New Zealand.

Mr Maasland was speaking at the company's annual meeting in Auckland this morning, after which the value of CHH shares spiked 5c to 212.

Meanwhile, Tranz Rail Holdings will be known as Toll NZ from today, in line with its majority shareholder Australia's Toll Holdings.

Toll NZ shares were unchanged at 155.

Shares on the move this morning included: Air NZ up 1c at 44, Briscoe Group up 1c at 144, AMP up 6c at 662, Ryman Healthcare up 4c at 234, The Warehouse up 1c at 435, Cavalier down 3c at 485, Michael Hill International up 3c at 572, Tower up 2c at 171, and Pacific Retail Group down 3c at 196.

Overseas, the US Federal Reserve's move to hold its benchmark interest rate at 1 per cent led to the US market posting minor gains overnight.

The Federal Reserve's open market committee said this morning (NZT) that any rate hike would take place at a "measured" pace, citing low inflation and "slack" resource use as reasons.

As a result, the Dow Jones closed up 3.20 points at 10,317.20, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 2.02 points at 1119.51, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 11.76 points at 1950.48.

- NZPA