Telecom leads index rebound from 8 week lows

Photo / Brett Phibbs

The New Zealand sharemarket bounced back a little yesterday after ending Monday at its lowest close in nearly eight weeks.

At the close of trading, the NZX-50 index was up 12.17 points to 3488.85 - recovering almost all the 13.9 points it lost on Monday, when there was an intraday low of 3474 before the two biggest aftershocks in Christchurch.

Just over 39 million shares changed hands, valued at $104 million, from the stocks which make up the index.

Telecom led the way, up 10.5c to $2.37.5 as shareholders' hopes that the company may be able to be split later this year rose after law changes to enable the ultrafast broadband project made progress in Parliament.

Fletcher Building - a key beneficiary of the reconstruction work in Canterbury - gained 4c in early trading but finished the day down 1c at $8.66. Casino and hotel operator SkyCity lifted 8c to $3.62, Rakon was up 1c to $1.05, NZX added 12c to $2.41 and Hallenstein Glasson put on 2c to $3.85. Contact Energy was down 5c to $5.77, but TrustPower fell 7c early before finishing down only 3c at $7.37. Tower dropped 8c to $1.70.

Port of Tauranga lost 4c to $8.70, and Lyttelton Port - largely owned by Christchurch City Council and Dunedin Port - fell nearly 1 per cent (2c) to $2.26 after it said it had had further damage to its facilities in Monday's earthquakes. It already faced a $22.6 million repair bill from the September and February earthquakes.

Air New Zealand rose 3c to $1.08 as it kept flying under and around ash from Chile's volcano, while some rival airlines grounded planes.

Heartland NZ, the putative bank being set up by Marac Finance and the Southern Cross and Canterbury building societies, rose to 74c after moving to buy PGG Wrightson's finance unit.

Promising economic data out of China saw Australian shares stage a turnaround to close higher despite significant falls earlier in the session.

The S&P/ASX200 index was up 22.9 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 4585.

In the United States, stocks drifted sideways in what may only be a temporary pause from a sell-off brought on by growing fears of another downturn.

Investors remained noncommittal about whether stocks have become cheap enough after six weeks of selling to pour some money back into equities again. The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 0.01 per cent to 11,952.97.

- NZPA