NZ stocks: Market ticks higher on quiet pre-holiday trade

12.10pm

In a repeat of early trading yesterday the sharemarket this morning floated higher on immediate gains by market leader Telecom.

By 11.30am the NZSX-50 gross index was 4.56 points or 0.19 per cent higher at 2411.37, while the NZSX-40 capital index was up 4.24 points or 0.19 per cent at 2240.06. Rises outnumbered falls 25 to 26 on 98 stocks traded with skinny turnover of $11.88 million.

Telecom was up 2c at 522 by 11.30am having pushed as high as 524 early on, reflecting gains made on the US markets where the Dow Jones index posted its fifth straight day of gains yesterday.

Direct Broking's Peter Lynds said there had been a fair amount of local buying interest in Telecom over the last three sessions.

Telecom stock may be affected later today by the Commerce Commission's final decision on whether the company must make its copper wire "local loop" available to competitors so that they can provide alternative high speed internet services.

Other lead stocks to move included Carter Holt Harvey up 2c at 186, Contact Energy up 4c at 544 and Fisher & Paykel Appliances down 4c at 384 .

Elsewhere on the New Zealand market, trading was light and mixed heading into the Christmas break. Tomorrow the market will trade only until 12.30pm.

Mr Lynds said discount retailer the Warehouse was coming in for some selling this morning, dropping 3c to 493 after breaking the $5 level yesterday.

Listed hire company Hirequip was up 5c at 95 after earlier announcing it had bought central North Island company Ready Hire Ltd for $21.2 million and had conditionally agreed to sell its 30 per cent shareholding in the Northwood Supa Centa for an expected profit of $3 million.

Tranz Rail continued to subside this morning after Toll Holdings' extended takeover offer ended yesterday. The rail operator was 4c lower at 161.

Fishing company Sanford was down 9c at 510. "It is quite a thin stock that moves on pretty light volumes, Mr Lynds said.

Port companies Ports of Auckland and Port of Tauranga continued to trade restlessly. Ports of Auckland was up 7c to 787, Port of Tauranga down 3c to 427.

The two stocks have looked for comfortable levels since last week's announcement by dairy exporter Fonterra that it preferred Port of Tauranga for a big chunk of its business.

The downside effect of that on Ports of Auckland was somewhat offset yesterday by news that its freight volumes were up in November.

Air NZ was up a cent to 48, BayCorp Advantage was up 2c at 302, Genesis Energy was down 15c at 105, NZX was down 6c at 560, Repco was down 2c at 287, Sky TV was up 4c at 537, Steel & Tube Holdings was up 3c at 380, and Turners Auctions was up 7c at 467.

On overseas markets, New York's Dow Jones industrial average added 30 points to 10,308, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.73 of a point to 1089, while the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index eased 3 points to 1948.

In London, Britain's FTSE 100 index closed 11.7 points or 0.27 per cent up at 4424.0, in Frankfurt, the DAX index ended at 3876.94 points, down 21.48 or 0.55 per cent, and in Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei average ended up 0.86 per cent at 10,372.51, after putting on 1.13 per cent last week.

- NZPA