NZ sharemarket edges up as earnings season continues

File photo / NZH

The New Zealand sharemarket edged ahead today and there was plenty for investors to digest with Telecom reporting earnings and Sir Ron Brierley's Guinness Peat Group (GPG) signalling its break up.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 1.574 points, or 0.047 percent, at 3367.442. Turnover was worth $126 million. There were 41 rises and 37 falls among the 112 stocks traded.

Telecom was among the losers, falling 3c to 216 after tax and regulatory changes knocked its half year bottom line, with net profit falling 32.2 percent to $164m.

"The Telecom story is still all about ultrafast broadband and until we get that resolved what they earn is irrelevant," said James Lee, head of institutional equities at First NZ Capital.

He said investors were awaiting a decision from the Government on the ultrafast broadband network.

"It is impossible to value Telecom without knowledge of the future business and we don't know that the future business will look like," Mr Lee said.

GPG closed up 7c at 77 on heavy volume after saying it will get a new senior manager in to oversee the sale of its assets and will return money to shareholders. Turnover in the stock amounted to $33.18m.

Mr Lee said a new board was in control and it had set up a plan to wind up the business but there was no time frame.

He was surprised at the movement in the share price because the plan was confirmation of what the company had been signalling for a while. Tower rose 5c to 199 and Turners & Growers was untraded. GPG is an investor in both companies.

Fletcher Building rose 5c to 816 after saying it had ACCC approval for its bid to buy Crane.

Otherwise, Methven rose 6c to 170, Steel & Tube rose 5c to 244, Restaurant Brands increased 5c to 245, Sanford was up 10c to 505 and Cavalier rose 5c to 320.

NZ Refining Co lifted 18c to an 18-month high at 518 but ended at 505.

Contact Energy fell 2c to 623, Infratil was down 1c to 192 and TrustPower declined 1c to 720.

Auckland Airport fell 1c to 222 and Freightways dropped 2c to 320.

Profit-taking continued in Mainfreight, which fell 5c to 815. Abano Healthcare was down 10c to 475.

In the US, stocks finished the day mixed, dragged down by Cisco Systems and Akamai Technologies, which both issued weak earnings forecasts, raising concerns about business spending.

Cisco, the world's largest networking equipment maker, fell 14 percent, the most of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones average. The company's fourth-quarter income slid 18 percent because of lower sales to government agencies.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended an eight-day winning streak, losing 0.1 percent to close at 12,229.29, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose a point to 1321.87, and the Nasdaq composite index also rose a point to 2790.45.

- NZPA