NZ stocks: Sharemarket improves on higher opening

12.50 pm

The New Zealand sharemarket opened higher today but amid more quiet trading and along with a better performance on world sharemarkets overnight.

Most of the major markets - except Frankfurt and Paris - closed comfortably higher, after sharp falls earlier in the week.

The home market continued to rise during the morning and at 11am the NZSE-40 index stood at 2052.28 - up 16.64 points - or 0.71 per cent - from an opening 2045.76.

The NZSE-SCI capital index was 0.34 of a point - or 0.01 per cent - higher, at 5427.72, from the opening 5426.57.

Turnover at 11am was 8.14 million shares, worth $27.50 million and of the 120 traded, 36 rose and 29 fell.

"Our market was quiet again at the opening but this is a world-wide trend these days," John Rattray, head of institutional dealing at J P Morgan Chase said.

The main features were Air New Zealand, Telecom and Sky City which rebounded 55c to 1100.

There was a rogue sale in Sky city shares yesterday that could have been a mistake but it pulled them down quite a lot but they are back to almost where they were, Mr Rattray said.

Another interesting stock was WestpacTrust after the Australian and New Zealand governments announced agreement to try and progress some tax neutrality as far as imputation regimes go, he said.

At 11am, Westpac Trust had risen 34c to 1640 on turnover of 64,810 shares worth $1.06 million.

The market was dominated by Air New Zealand yesterday after Singapore Airlines said it was poised to lift its stake in the airline after edging out Qantas Airways in a sharp battle for control.

Air New Zealand is to ask the Government to allow Singapore Airlines to "substantially increase" its shareholding in the company, through a share placement at $1.31 a share.

At 11am, Air NZ's domestic A shares were a couple of cents higher at 112 and the freely held B shares gained a cent to 134.

Market heavyweight Telecom - which has a 22 per cent weighting in the Top 40 index - was 10c higher at 555 and was topping turnover at 11am with 2.08 million shares, worth $11.43 million.

Telstra had gained 9c to 699.

Fisher and Paykel rose 20c to 11250, on turnover of 14,888 shares.

Brierley Investments was steady at 66 and power company, Natural Gas Corp, lost 3c to 92. It might be poised to sell customers to other electricity retailers, to lessen the cashflow crisis for its On energy retail arm, analysts said.

They said the prospect had firmed after NGC yesterday issued a statement to the market that said it was negotiating a number of proposed agreements that, when finalised, "significantly reduce NGC's exposure to the wholesale electricity spot mark et".

PDL Holdings was unchanged at 1096, as was Fletcher Challenge spin-off, Rubicon at 61.

Fletcher Building was a cent higher at 229, Fletcher Forests preference shares rose a cent to 29 as did the company's main shares to 30.

Meat exporter Richmond shed 6c to 230, Auckland International Airport was unchanged at 367, Lion Nathan was 7c higher at 539 and Montana Group was steady at 480.

Pay TV operator Sky TV was steady at 344 as was part owner, Independent Newspapers at 370.

Infratil was steady at 136 and wood-products firm, Carter Holt Harvey, was unchanged at 173.

The Warehouse lost a cent to 564, Contact Energy gained a cent to 292 and Waste Management was steady at 385.

In other activity, drinks company Frucor was a cent lighter at 159, financial-services company Tower was steady at 515, AMP rose 25c to 2575 and Baycorp was rose 6c to 1225.

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street on Wednesday after see-saw trading, when investors' expectations that the economic slump had reached a floor won out against nagging worries over dwindling corporate profits.

The tech-rich Nasdaq composite index rose 38.6 points - or 1.94 per cent - to close at 2031.24, the blue-chip Dow Jones average index of 30 industrials gained 50.66 points - or 0.48 per cent - to 10,647.33 and the broader, Standard and Poor's 500 composite index picked up 10.56 points - or 0.87 per cent - to 1223.14.

- NZPA