NZ stocks: Telecom leads market up in late rally

6.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket ended on a stronger note, with market leader Telecom leading the way.

At its close the NZ50 gross index ended up 5.158 points at 1919.23 and the NZSE40 capital index gained 3.03 points to 1887.84 on turnover of $103.2 million.

Brokers said the New Zealand market appeared to get up a fresh head of steam along with the Australian market after news that Liberty Media was taking up to A$500 million in News Corp shares.

Portfolio buying appeared to be driving an 8c rise in index touchstone Telecom to 445, the highest close for five weeks.

But although Telecom commanded about a third of the volume, there was strong trading in other leaders.

The Warehouse and Fletcher Building traded strongly but negatively, with Fletcher Building falling 5c to 342 and the Warehouse down 4c to 562, both on more than $9 million worth of shares.

Carter Holt Harvey was flat on 177 on $7.3 million shares

Air NZ shares lost a cent to 50, apparently in sympathy with Qantas which fell 13 per cent after warning that it would not meet its full year profit target because of terror fears and the war.

Although Air NZ has already put out a more general warning about lower traffic, it and Auckland Airport, which was down 7c to 518, were regarded as being vulnerable to tourism concerns.

"Auckland Airport and Air NZ would be a little bit nervous. We've seen Qantas downgrade today and get hammered," Forsyth Barr broker Suzanne Kinnaird said.

Air NZ also announced today it was putting up fares in and out of the Wellington region because of a rise in airport fees.

Power firm Contact Energy remained under pressure on fears of government intervention in the energy sector, and dropped another 4c to 421.

Tranz Rail, which last night said it was putting its road freight division on the market, eased 4c to 101 on moderate turnover.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare and its appliance cousin rose 5c and fell 10c respectively to 930. Yesterday FPH's Australian competitor Resmed announced an alliance with United States cardiological hospital group MedCath, and brokers said the outlook was good for the whole breathing appliance sector.

Other moves, mostly on light volume, included Colonial Motors up 15c to 320, Hellaby up 8c to 350, Infratil -- a Wellington Airport major shareholder -- up 3c to 170, Northport up 20c to 290, Richmond up 4c to 315, and Tower down 2c to 197.

Falls outnumbered rises 43 to 40 on 126 stocks traded.

Overseas markets were more subdued because of the war and rising oil prices. Britain's FTSE 100 finished down 64.0 points, or 1.7 per cent at 3729.1, its lowest close for eight days, while on Wall St the blue-chip Dow eased 28.43 points or 0.35 per cent to 8201.45.

The broad Standard and Poor's 500 dipped 1.43 points or 0.16 per cent to 868.52. The Nasdaq Composite edged down 3.20 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 1,384.25, after losing 1.3 per cent.

- NZPA