NZ stocks: Telecom trading buoys sharemarket in morning trading

The sharemarket traded in positive territory this morning with market heavyweight Telecom dominating New Zealand Exchange's turnover.

At 11.30am, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 2.26 points at 2326.79, while the NZSX-40 capital index was down 0.22 points at 2220.69.

So far this morning there had been $90.6 million worth of shares traded on volume of 19.7 million.

Among the 96 stocks traded were 28 rises and 20 falls.

Market heavyweight Telecom was unchanged on 503, having traded $61.2 million worth on volume of 12.3 million.

ABN Amro Craigs operator Matt Willis said Telecom stock had come under pressure from offshore investors taking currency profits out of the market.

"That is a consensus view throughout the broking industry," he told NZPA today.

At 11.30am, the New Zealand dollar was fetching US63.05 cents.

Contact Energy this morning posted a September year net surplus of $118.3 million, the profit up 11 per cent on last year and buoyed by rising electricity prices.

The company's final dividend was 17.5 cents taking the total fully imputed dividend for the year to 23 cents a share, 10 per cent up on that for the last financial year.

Contact shares were up 7c at 515, pushing close to their year high of 516.

"On the face of it that was a good result and it was right at the top end of analysts' forecasts," Mr Willis said, adding that the forecasts was $103-$120 million.

"As a net generator they will always have better times when there the spot market (prices for wholesale electricity) is bouyant.

"That does well structure the mix between generation and retail is," he said.

In other market news, the New Zealand Alternative Exchange (NZAX) market opened at 11am, trading just $6684 on volume of 6077.

Meanwhile, Hellaby Holdings has its annual meeting today, the company's shares were down 8c at 455, having traded between 272 and 520 this year.

Shares on the rise today were: Briscoe Group up 4c at 184, Cavalier up 5c at 555, DB Breweries up 5c at 785, Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 12c at 1490, Infratil up 2c at 255, NXZ up 5c at 510, and The Warehouse up 4c at 584.

Among those on the slide were: Air New Zealand down 1c at 47, AMP down 2c at 700, ANZ Bank down 20c at 1925, Carter Holt Harvey down 1c at 180, Nuplex down 2c at 410, Ports of Auckland down 5c at 805, and Tower down 3c at 137.

Overseas, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.97 points at 9847.86, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.3 points at 1058.83, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 6.6 points at 1966.51.

- NZPA