NZ stocks: Market reverses early fall

12.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket's newest arrival, Freightways, listed strongly this morning as the market reversed an early fall.

In quiet Monday trading the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was up 0.20 per cent, or 4.46 points, at 2278.67, by late morning while the top-40 index was up 0.12 per cent at 2179.82.

Turnover of 12.88 million stocks was valued at $45.67 million.

ABN Amro Craigs retail equities advisor Nigel Scott said the market was buoyant heading into the end of the financial quarter tomorrow.

"Although there are a few negatives, there really doesn't seem to be a lot of pressure coming from the sell-side. The market ... if there's any buying, can aggressively move."

Contact Energy was the major mover today, up 8c at 502.

" ... considering the lakes and rivers are pretty full that's a good performance."

Contact Energy, which is a power retailer and generator, made a presentation to investors in London last week, outlining the problems facing New Zealand's energy industry and where Contact's business was headed.

Courier company Freightways listed at midday at 175, a healthy premium above its issue price of 160.

Freightways raised $141.5 million in the share issue and will feature among the top 50 companies.

"With the amount of cash about and people looking for new homes (for it), it's a story that people seem pretty comfortable with at 160," Mr Scott said.

By 12.12pm, 1.30 million Freightways shares had changed hands for $2.27 million.

Market leader Telecom was unchanged at 518, recovering from an early 2c fall, while Carter Holt Harvey was up 2c at 170, The Warehouse was down 5c at 540, and Fletcher Building gained 1c to 426.

Casino company Sky City was up 5c at 871.

"They're moving to the end of the quarter in reasonable shape -- at the end of the last quarter we had a roar, and the quarter before that we had a roar down," Mr Scott said.

Clothing retailer Postie Plus, which listed on the New Zealand Exchange on September 2, was unchanged at 119 after bettering its forecasts for the five months ended July 31.

Benefiting from a positive retail sector, Postie Plus' net profit of $1.24 million was above the $95 million forecast in its prospectus, because of stronger than expected sales.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances was up 10c at 1485, Auckland Airport was down 2c at 663, Independent Newspapers Ltd was down 1c at 455, Restaurant Brands gained 1c to 124, Sky TV was down 4c at 501, and Wellington Drive Technologies was down 2c at 63.

Hallenstein Glasson was down 3c at 297 following a little-changed annual profit on Friday of $11.5 million.

Of the stocks to go ex-dividend today, Allied Farmers (5c per share) was unchanged at 216, Hirequip (1.5cps) was unchanged at 86, and Telstra (A12cps) was down 11c at 548.

There were 29 rises and 27 falls on the 104 stocks traded.

On Wall St on Friday stocks fell to their lowest in a month, with the Nasdaq Composite Index down 1.39 per cent at 1792.07, the Dow Jones industrial average falling 0.33 per cent to 9,313.08, and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index down 0.64 per cent at 996.85.

- NZPA