NZ stocks: Market sets off with a whimper again

12.00 pm

The New Zealand sharemarket looked set for another quiet session again today, with turnover of $9 million just ahead of yesterday's.

By mid-morning the NZSE-40 capital index was up 10.67 points, or 0.52 per cent, at 2050.61. Turnover of 3.33 million stocks, valued at $8.99 million, was topped by Telecom's 730,700 stocks, valued at $3.63 million.

Martin Edwards of Forsyth Barr Frater Williams said Telecom had led the market higher today.

The market heavyweight is set to make an estimated extra $26 million a year after announcing yesterday it would raise the price of its residential line rental and other services, citing increased costs and "explosive growth" in calls.

The increases will affect line rental, international calls to mobile phones, the optional wiring maintenance service and off-peak national calls, from February.

Telecom said the rental rise was the first in more than three years. This morning the market rewarded the telco by pushing it up 11c to 504 in an otherwise sluggish market.

"A few highlights, Briscoe again very well bid (up 2c at 167). The other leaders are very quiet, no real corporate news out there and everyone's just biding their time in the market," Mr Edwards said.

"Probably the standout riser of the day would be Software of Excellence (up 35c to 360) ... There's not a lot of stock out there, and not a lot of sellers in this market at the moment, so people are having to pay up to get stock, but we know of no new news from the company at this stage," he said.

Software of Excellence, a New Zealand dental software concern, built on yesterday's 25c gain to reach a fresh high in what has become a stellar run recently. The stock has recovered from a low of 78c this year, and has risen by about 30 per cent in the last month.

Elsewhere on the market Auckland Airport was up 1c at 355, The Warehouse gained 10c to 660, Fisher & Paykel Appliances was up 5c at 1015, and casino company Sky City was up 3c at 630.

Fletcher Building lost 1c to 285, Carter Holt Harvey was down 1c at 167 and Guinness Peat Group shed 1c at 159.

There were 27 rises and 15 falls on the 75 stocks traded.

There was little direction from overseas markets with New Zealand stocks weaker in the US, apart from Telecom, which was up slightly at the equivalent of 499.

On Wall Street the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 43.17 points, or 0.43 per cent, at 10,131.31; the Nasdaq composite gained 15.72 points, or 0.80 per cent, to 1976.42; and the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index added 7.76 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 1157.13.

- NZPA