NZ stocks: Telecom and Baycorp brighten dull day

The sharemarket was "extraordinarily quiet" yesterday, with turnover totalling a light $73.8 million, Merrill Lynch institutional desk director Matthew Rose said.

"There was a good performance from Telecom, in concert with strength in the Australasian regional telco sector," said Mr Rose.

Telecom was up 10c at 612 on turnover of 3.9 million shares worth $24 million, and Telstra rallied 30c to 790.

Energy stocks gained, with Contact Energy up 8c at 269 and Fletcher Energy up 3c to 893.

"Contact had a good day, trading up on interest in defensive utilities, and Fletcher Energy closed up on the day on moderate turnover," said Mr Rose.

But, Fletcher Building fell 2c to 243 and Forests was 1c down at 80.

Forestry stock Carter Holt Harvey was unchanged at 165 on trade of 2.8 million shares worth $4.5 million - despite boosting its buying of other companies' logs in a bid to control wood flows into export markets and lift prices.

Other top 10 stocks also fell. INL went down 4c to 350 and its 49 per cent investment Sky TV weakened 10c to 328. Auckland Airport lost 5c to close at 265.

"Sky TV continued to weaken on very small turnover, and Auckland Airport also weakened for no apparent reason - there's very little specific news," Mr Rose said.

Transtasman brewer Lion Nathan closed 4c down at 480.

Elsewhere on the sharemarket, credit management company Baycorp started recovering from its recent tumble - the stock has fallen from $13.39 on September 11 - to close at $11.30, 35c up on Tuesday's close.

Tech stocks GDC and Advantage both gained - GDC up 10c at 390 and Advantage 5c to 203 - but new listing, biotechnology company Genesis dropped 20c to 680 although it is still up on its 600c issue price.

The NZSE-40 Capital Index closed 8.91 points up at 1999.07, and the NZSE SCI Capital Index went up 3.21 to 5244.67.

- NZPA