NZ stocks: Sharemarket continues buoyant run, hits fresh high

6.03pm

Telecom rang up more gains today, to help propel the key sharemarket index to yet another record high.

The benchmark NZSX-50 gross index gained for the seventh consecutive day, rising 17.19 points to a record 2884.77, while the NZSX-All capital index gained 5.77 points to 954.48.

Rises outnumbered falls 73 to 34 among the 156 stocks traded today.

High expectations of a strong first quarter result announcement tomorrow for Telecom saw the top stock gain 6c to 591.

Matt Willis of ABN Amro Craigs said the market was waiting for a good result, but the real focus for investors was Telecom's dividend and its sustainability.

"Telecom has such strong net cash flows that that dividend is not only sustainable, but probably a little bit light," he said.

Another of the day's biggest movers was Australian-owned AMP, which surged 55c, or 7.9 per cent to 755 on rumours either ANZ Bank or US giant General Electric were looking to buy a stake in the insurer. ANZ denied the rumour, while GE and AMP refused to comment to Australian media enquiries.

ANZ rose 15c to 2275.

"It's a sector where there has been a lot of talk about M&A activity and perhaps where there's smoke there's fire, but there's obviously nothing concrete at this stage," Mr Willis said.

A spate of annual general meetings today also proved inspiring for investors.

Provenco ended the day up 7c, or 9.9 per cent to 78c. Shareholders were told at its AGM the company expected to exceed last year's full year net profit of $4.1 million.

Cavalier said earnings for the first four months of the year were tracking 4 per cent above last year, but warned the high New Zealand dollar was likely to negatively impact full year results. The carpet maker rose 2c to 470, while its rival Feltex was unchanged at 157c.

Meanwhile the now newspaper-less Independent Newspapers Ltd said at its AGM it hoped to put a proposed merger with Sky Network Television to shareholders in early 2005. INL rose 3c to 520, while Sky Network TV gained 4c to 570.

Lion Nathan reported a net profit of A$160.1 million ($177.3m) for the September year, down 11 per cent on the previous year. the brewer was unchanged at 858c.

Carter Holt Harvey continued to slide, losing 3c to 208. Mr Willis said there was lingering disappointment the company had decided to sell only one third of its forest assets.

Other stocks on the move today included: Tower up 7c at 248, Waste Management up 9c at 555, Contact Energy up 8c at 615 and The Warehouse down 4c at 409.

In the US, the re-election of George W Bush sparked a modest rally in Wall Street. Goldman Sachs JB Were broker Joe Gallagher said the election result could see the local market under-perform Wall Street for a period.

"It will take the focus of defensive market such as New Zealand and Australia.

"It's common to have a relief rally after an election, but that is likely to run out of puff as markets focus again on the US twin deficits," he said.

- NZPA