NZ stocks: Shares reverse losses despite lacklustre Wall St

12.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket shrugged off yesterday's steep losses to trade up just over half a per cent this morning, despite a lukewarm day on Wall St.

The NZ50 gross index added 11.05 points to 1958.34 by 11.30am while the NZSE-40 capital index was 12.64 points higher at 1930.38.

Turnover of 8.7 million shares totalled $26.4 million.

News that Independent Newspapers, controlled 45 per cent by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, is in talks with John Fairfax Holdings on the sale of its New Zealand publishing operations provided the key talking point.

INL shares were suspended pending a further statement, having last traded yesterday at $3.38, but shares in its 66-per cent subsidiary Sky Network Television rallied 32c to $4 in early trading in expectation that the residual INL company would make a full takeover bid for Sky. By 11.30am the stock had dropped back to $3.90.

Fairfax's flagship mastheads include the Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Age and Australian Financial Review.

INL owns nine daily papers in New Zealand, including Wellington's Dominion Post and Christchurch Press; one Australian daily; New Zealand's two Sunday papers; the Stuff website; the TV Guide; and a range of national magazines including New Zealand House and Garden.

Market leader Telecom, which owns 10 per cent of Sky TV and 12 per cent of INL, was up 6c at 463.

Elsewhere the market was fairly flat, JB Were broker Gareth Stythe said, following on from a lacklustre night in offshore markets.

By 11.30am rises outnumbered falls by 34 to 23 among the 102 stocks traded so far.

Among the leaders Auckland International Airport was up 3c at 505, Baycorp Advantage rose 6c to 160, Briscoe Group dropped a cent to 187, Carter Holt Harvey rose 2c to 163, Fletcher Building added 1c to 322, Fisher & Paykel Appliances was 5c higher at 1040, The Warehouse dipped 1c to 545 and Tranz Rail was 4c lower at 71c.

Jeweller Michael Hill dipped a further 8c to 402 after shedding 7.5 per cent yesterday on news the company expects an operating profit of between $9.5 million and $10.5 million for the year to June, about 14 per cent less than last year's result.

Waste Management rose 5c to 315. The company yesterday withdrew a vote on an issue of options for managing director Kim Ellis at its annual meeting after an institutional shareholder said it had ticked the wrong voting box.

The issue would have allowed Mr Ellis to exercise 251,088 options at $2.987 a share after three years if there was a 25 per cent increase in earnings per share during that time.

In the United States stocks staged a tepid rally overnight as economic worries continued to sour sentiment.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.29 per cent, to 8221.33, after seesawing close to break-even for much of the session. The tech-laced Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.65 per cent to 1365.61, after trading lower much of the day. The broad Standard & Poor's 500 added 0.65 per cent to 871.58.

- NZPA