NZ stocks: Market finishes on positive, Telecom up

The New Zealand Exchange finished on a positive note today after shares in market heavyweight Telecom increased 5c in the wake of its annual meeting in Auckland.

At 5pm, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 3.36 points at 2300.94, while the NZSX-40 capital index was up 1.94 points at 2202.19.

There was $127.7 million worth of shares traded on volume of 44.2 million. Among the 141 stocks traded were 47 rises and 48 falls.

Both indices had eased slightly during this morning's session.

Telecom finished the day up 5c at 512, having traded $49.1 million worth on volume of 9.6 million million.

Macquarie Equities analyst Arthur Lim said the sharemarket had started off in negative territory, but swung upwards after Telecom's annual meeting.

"Telecom certainly staged a pretty nice recovery during the course of the day," Mr Lim told NZPA today, adding that the meeting had generally been positive, he said.

Initially, the market had followed the lead of its overseas counterparts, he said.

Electricity retailer TrustPower closed the day strongly. It was up 12c at 515, a fresh 3-1/2 year high, on volume of 4583.

"It was on very, very light volume," Mr Lim said.

"I think it would be fair to say that the power companies have generally been doing well of late. There is renewed interest in some of these stocks."

Contact Energy finished the day down 4c at 510, while Powerco was unchanged on 184.

In other market news, Fletcher Forests closed unchanged at 130c as interest mounts around the sales of its 106,000ha forest estate.

The company yesterday announced it was paying $8.5 million to the US based Campbell Group with which it has signed a letter of intent for the sale of its forest estates.

The fee gives Fletcher Forests the right to negotiate an alternative offer with Kiwi Forests Group, and opens the door for an improved offer from Campbell Group.

Shares on the rise today included: AMP up 2c at 770, Fletcher Building up 1c at 427, Hellaby up 6c at 510, Nuplex up 4c at 420, Port of Tauranga up 5c at 430, Lion Nathan up 7c 618, and Wrightson up 1c at 152.

Among those on the slide were: Auckland International Airport down 3c at 646, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 15c at 1266, Rubicon down 1c at 72, Air New Zealand down 1c at 52, Carter Holt Harvey down 1c at 177, INL down 2c at 458, and Ports of Auckland down 15c at 850.

Overseas, stocks fell in New York with the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 34 points to 9621, and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 6 points to 1034.

Britain's top shares reversed after an earlier rally to end nearly flat for a third straight day. The FTSE 100 share index closed down 3.4 points to 4268.6.

European stocks closed flat and Japan's Nikkei index ended down 278.13 points at 10,542.20.

- NZPA