NZ stocks: Stockmarket closes higher, buoyed by corporate news

Gains in top stocks Telecom and Contact Energy today helped pull the sharemarket higher in a session also buoyed by corporate news, a broker said.

At 5pm, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 8.52 points at 2669.64, while the NZSX-All capital index was up 2.67 points at 896.84.

Market turnover was $81.9 million and among the 163 stocks traded were 57 rises and 46 falls.

ASB Securities head of advisory Stephen Wright said today's trading was solid, helped along by a flurry of corporate news.

Shares in Telecom were up 1c at 579, on turnover of $19.9m, while those in Contact were up 11c at 583, on turnover of $1.9m.

Mr Wright said Contact investors had reacted positively to news of a $69m windfall.

Contact would be paid the money by Mighty River Power to end some long-term hedging contracts between the two.

Mr Wright said while the $69m injection was well received, news of the potential sale of Edison Mission Energy's 51 per cent stake in Contact was perceived as more important by investors.

"People are more reluctant to sell (Contact shares) than they used to be," he told NZPA today.

Meanwhile, tensions surrounding the saga of Rural Portfolio Investment's (RPI) successful play for Wrightson ratcheted up a couple more notches today.

Wrightson managing director Alan Freeth was sacked -- though he has questioned the legality of his dismissal -- one day after most of the firm's board resigned and was replaced by directors linked to the Craig Norgate-led RPI.

Wrightson shares were up 2c at 140.

"It (the share price) seems to be forming a base around 140c level," Mr Wright said, noting the share price had been somewhat erratic over the past year.

Another stock to head south was The Warehouse, its shares down 1c at 426 after it said it was expecting a full year profit "towards the low end" of its previously flagged $60 million to $70 million range.

Other stocks on the move included: AMP up 3c at 700, Austral Pacific up 26c at 376, Ebos up 15c at 375, Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 8c at 453, Genesis down 6c at 68, Lion Nathan down 10c at 731, NZX up 5c at 865, Pyne Gould Corporation up 23c at 568, and Richmond up 10c at 330.

Overseas, in United States, the Dow Jones slipped 14.16 points to 10,357.68, the Standard & Poor's 500 fell 0.81 of a point to 1133.60, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.65 points to 2019.82.

- NZPA