NZ stocks: Telecom leads NZX trade

12.30pm

A sudden spurt in Telecom shares this morning helped push the sharemarket higher, in marked contrast to Wall St's overnight fall.

At 11.30am, the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was up 9.06 points at 2487.19, while the NZSX-40 capital index was up 6.93 points at 2274.74.

Telecom shares were up 6c at 570, having accounted for $6.1 million -- or 35 per cent -- of the $17.3 million turnover so far today.

ABN Amro Craigs broker Matt Willis said trading on NZX had been modest, and much of the move in Telecom could be pinned to retail investors.

"They (Telecom shares) are certainly tracking quite well today," Mr Willis told NZPA.

"It's pretty low volume in Telecom over the last few days. Maybe there's a lack of international order flow," he said.

"Possibly it's retail buying taking effect."

Meanwhile, Richmond shares were unchanged on 251 after the Privy Council overnight declined the Bell Group of shareholders leave to appeal an Appeal Court ruling against majority shareholder PPCS.

The ruling effectively ends the battle by Bell, which has gone on for several years.

The Privy Council also refused leave for GPG to appeal the Appeal Court's decision on Perry Corp involving its disclosure of its Rubicon stake.

Rubicon was unchanged on 75c while GPG was up 1c on 200.

In other moves, NZX was up 22c, or 2.7 per cent, at 810, having hit 820 in this morning's session.

"There's a distinct lack of research floating around on NZX and that's part of the problem and so trying to value it (the stock) is difficult," Mr Willis said.

"It's probably getting somewhere near fair value (at today's level)," he said.

Shares in Contact Energy were down 2c at 516 after it today said it had paid $10.75 million to settle a series of linked disputes arising from its purchase of Empower over three years ago.

Also today, Fisher & Paykel Appliances lifted its full year profit forecast to between $80 million and $85 million. It would announce the result on May 20. Its shares were up 4c at 404.

NGC was up 1c to 233 after recent selling associated with speculation that AGL would sell its two thirds holding.

Other stocks on the move today included: Air NZ down 1c at 40, Ebos up 5c at 350, Nuplex up 5c at 460, Owens down 10c at 106, Sky TV up 3c at 520, and The Warehouse up 4c at 446.

In all, there were 29 stocks up and 13 down among the 94 traded.

- NZPA