Sharemarket: Contact, Carter look solid

The sharemarket ended the day steady ahead of the Fletcher Challenge shareholders meeting today, which may yet be delayed by court action.

The NZSE-40 capital index closed up 1.85 points, or 0.09 per cent, at 2002.41, while the smaller companies' NZSE-SCI capital index fell 20.27 points to 5287.90.

Turnover of 36.37 million stocks, valued at $85.86 million, was topped by Fletcher Energy's $26.99 million worth of shares changing hands.

AMP Office, which went ex-dividend to the tune of 3.5c per share, was also traded fairly heavily with 4.54 million shares valued at $3.21 million.

Richard Burton of Cavill White Securities said there had been some healthy buy orders across the board.

"We've only finished square while Australia's up 8 points, but the Nikkei's down again. The market's pretty nervous about what's going on overseas.

"The New Zealand market has done pretty well in the last week when the US market's been particularly weak, so it's a pretty good place to be really," Mr Burton said.

Among the Fletcher stocks, Energy closed up 7c at $9.20, Forests rose 1c to 32c and Building was unchanged at $2.02.

Elsewhere on the market, Carter Holt Harvey rose 5c to $1.87, on 2.7 million shares traded.

Contact Energy gained 4c to $2.90 as investors appeared to undergo a change of heart. Contact shares hit a low of $2.36 in April last year, and have improved this year from $2.65 at the end of December.

"I think things are turning around there, it may be a return to quality," Mr Burton said.

Rumours in the market around Frucor boosted its share price 3c to $1.99, while Guinness Peat Group rose 2c to $1.51, breaching the $1.50 mark for the first time since December 14.

Telecom went ex-dividend to the tune of 5c per share, and was consequently down 5c at $5.25. In a blow to Telecom's expansion across the Tasman, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that rival bidder SingTel had Cable and Wireless Optus "in the bag."

Calan Healthcare, which reported a flat first-half profit of $4.36 million, not far from last year's $4.32 million, was down 1c at 77c.

Advantage shares continued to fall yesterday in the wake of last week's worse-than-expected profit result. The stock ended the day down 8c at $1.18, a slight improvement on its day low of $1.14, but light years away from its year high of $5.65 last April.

The stock has also been hit by management uncertainty following the resignation of chief executive Greg Cross.

Advantage has also struggled against the backdrop of a worldwide slump in technology stocks, particularly the spectacular fall in bellwether technology index the Nasdaq, which shed 22 per cent of its value in February.

- NZPA