NZ stocks: Market tentatively recovers along with Wall St

12.00pm

The sharemarket was in recovery mode this morning, after bearish overseas markets wiped 30 points off the Top 40 yesterday.

Just after 11am the NZSE-40 capital index was up 6.62 points to 2106.85 on a turnover of $23 million.

Brokers noted there was a "bit of bottom-fishing" in some of the hardest hit stocks from yesterday's tumble.

"I think the market's still uncertain of the long term outlook for the US and European markets because they have been fairly hardly punished over the last few weeks," James Snell, a broker with First NZ Capital.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare topped turnover by value, based on a couple of pre-market lines this morning. It rose 6c to 837 on $8.5 million worth of shares after tumbling to a new low of 831 yesterday, down 27c.

Its appliance cousin and 19.9 per cent shareholder, F&P Appliances, was also up 10c to 915 after shedding 55c yesterday, when it went ex-dividend by 32.5cps.

Another stock marked down yesterday, The Warehouse, was steady at 755.

Market leader Telecom, with $4.6 million worth of shares traded so far, was up 4c to 513. It slid 11c to 509 on $18.7 million yesterday.

Carter Holt Harvey, which dropped 6c yesteday, was up 1c to 200 today.

Independent Newspapers rose 2c to 394, after it announced it was merging its two Wellington dailies. Analysts said it was an unsurprising move which was likely to reduce costs, although not in the short-term, and bolster advertising yields.

Other stocks to move included Software of Excellence up 10c to 260, Baycorp up 5c to 425, Horizon up 10c to 340, Sky City up 7c to 647 and Sky TV down 5c to 450.

So far there have been 36 rises and 19 falls on 98 stocks traded.

On Wall St, a plunging US dollar and fears of a delayed recovery in corporate profits initially pounded stocks to lows unseen since just after the September 11 attacks.

But technology shares then led the bargain-hunting rally, which came amid a mix of expectations and speculation, including rumours that Microsoft Corp, the software giant, would hand the market an upbeat financial forecast.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 28.03 points, or 0.30 per cent, to 9,281.82. Earlier in the day, the Dow slid more than 1 per cent to hit its lowest level since last November.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 3.58 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 992.72. Earlier, the S&P also fell to its lowest level since last September.

- NZPA