NZ Stocks: Telecom spearheads eight-day streak

The New Zealand sharemarket spent its eighth consecutive day on the up and up, with the key top-40 index closing up more than 22 points, or 1.15 per cent.

Turnover in Telecom and Fletcher Energy stocks made up the lion's share of total turnover, which was 26.11 million, valued at $99.21 million.

The sharemarket reached a four-month high despite a partial market holiday - many institutional dealers were closed for the Wellington Anniversary Day holiday.

Shane Gavegan of Deutsche Securities said the market was tending towards the buy side, although there was some selling in the afternoon. The Chinese New Year would mean lighter volumes throughout the week.

Telecom finished the day off its highs, but remained up 15c at $5.83 on turnover valued at $29.64 million. Telstra closed up 10c at $8.85.

"Telco stocks are going up around the world. Investors seem to be warming a bit to what Telecom's trying to achieve in Australia, in regard to [buying] Cable and Wireless' mobile phone assets," Mr Gavegan said.

"I would put [Telecom's rise] more down to the fact that Telecom had a six-year low, it had no friends, our currency's gone up, and telecom stocks are back in favour, partly helped by [US Fed chairman Alan] Greenspan cutting interest rates which helps funding - telecoms stocks generally are looking to expand at the moment. It's just momentum."

Fletcher Energy rose 10c to close at $8.90, following a boost to its US asset Capstone Turbines on Friday. "Capstone's gained 80 per cent in the last nine trading days and Energy's probably trading up 40c-50c as well," Mr Gavegan said.

Fletcher Building was up 2c at $2.27, INL ended up 15c at $3.55 on light volume, and Sky TV gained 10c to $3.50.

Carter Holt Harvey was up 3c at $1.67, Air New Zealand B shares were up 5c at $2.20, Lion Nathan gained 2c to $5.00, and Nufarm was up 9c at $3.95.

Technology company Advantage Group was up 17c at $1.25 on the back of no news, prompting the NZSE's surveillance panel to investigate.

Major retailer The Warehouse was down 4c at $5.60 on the back of poor performances from US retailers, although fellow retailer Hallenstein Glasson was up 5c at $2.40.

Contact Energy lost 1c to $2.80, AMP shed 28c to $23.00, Sky City lost 15c to $8.75, and Tourism Holdings eased 2c to $1.88. Tranz Rail lost 3c to $3.70 and TrustPower shed 3c to $3.01.

There were 58 rises and 38 falls among the 146 stocks traded.

The NZSE-40 capital index was up 22.99 points at 2020.23 while the small companies' NZSE-SCI capital index rose 2.85 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 5205.64.

- NZPA