NZ stocks: Market enjoys surge on light turnover

12:30 pm

The New Zealand sharemarket enjoyed a modest New Year surge this morning but on very low volumes.

By 11 am the NZSE-40 capital index was up 8 points to 2061.30, but on the back of a skinny $10.4 million turnover.

Today's market was pushed up by Telecom, which rose 5c to 505, although brokers were expecting a quiet day's trading.

"I would have to say it's going to be pretty subdued ...A lot of investors are still away," said Bill Cunningham, a director with JB Were.

Among the few stocks traded, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare opened down 40c after falling on the Nasdaq but was clawing its way back to 1680, a 30c drop. Brokers suggested arbitrage was at work.

Lion Nathan topped the turnover with offmarket trading worth $3 million, pushing the price up 5c to 570. Yesterday the company announced it had gained 84 per cent of Australian winemaker Banksia, but had failed to get full control because Allied Domecq had declined to sell its stake.

Strong projected retail sales over Christmas appeared to be fuelling the 5c rise in Pacific Retail shares to 229 and a 10c rise in the Warehouse to 670. Market darling Briscoe Group slipped 4c to 163.

Waste Management was up 6c to 308, as analysts picked its fortunes to improve this year. The stock has improved 30 per cent since late October.

Other rises included Wakefield, up 5c to 150, Auckland Airport up 3c to 365, Sky TV up 10c to 405, and Fletcher Forest preference and ordinary shares up 1c to 23.

Falls included Tranz Rail down 10c to 390, Air NZ down 1c to 34, Port of Tauranga down 10c to 730, and Software of Excellence down 3c to 335.

There were 28 rises and 26 falls on 92 stocks traded.

On Wall Street, stocks staged a late-day rally on the first trading day of 2002, as investors reacted positively to better than expected December manufacturing data.

Fund managers were shuffling their portfolios, positioning themselves for the year ahead, analysts said. History, at least, points to a higher 2002 after two back-to-back years of steep declines - the first since the bear market of 1973-74.

The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index rose 28.86 points, or 1.48 per cent, to 1,979.26. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average gained 51.9 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 10,073.40, and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 6.59 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 1,154.67.

- NZPA