Carter Holt active in happier session

The New Zealand sharemarket perked up in both activity and tone yesterday, with turnover totalling a healthy $127 million, Cavill White Securities equities dealer Alan Wills said.

"The market was pretty active and the tone was quite solid," Mr Wills said.

The NZSE-40 Capital Index advanced slightly, rising 2.36 points (0.11 per cent) to 2106.24, and the NZSE SCI Capital Index of smaller stocks also gained, closing up 29.96 (0.57 per cent) at 5310.34.

Number two stock Carter Holt Harvey was "very heavily traded," with turnover of 9.3 million shares worth $17.9 million, ahead of its first-quarter results tomorrow. It reached a high of 196 during the day but closed unchanged on 193, Mr Wills said. This was despite being fined $525,000 by the Commerce Commission on Monday for breaching competition rules. CHH said it would appeal.

There was also large turnover in market giant Telecom, which rose a solid 8c to 720.

Brewer Lion Nathan, which is seeking to raise its stake in Montana from 19.9 per cent to just below 25 per cent amid rumours that Australian wine conglomerate Southcorp is likely to bid for the Auckland-based wine company, was unchanged at 495. Montana was 3c weaker at 247.

Fletcher Energy, which fell 30c on Monday, rallied 14c to 699 after its investment Capstone had a solid end on Wall St. The other two Fletcher stocks weakened, Building 3c to 235 and Forests 1c to 85.

Several top-10 stocks came off 10c yesterday - Fisher and Paykel down to 715, INL to 395 and The Warehouse to 570.

Contact Energy continued its decline, closing down 2c at 266. The stock has lost 7.3 per cent since chief executive Paul Anthony announced his resignation last week.

Among the medium-sized companies, GDC was up 25c to 445 on the back of recent positive publicity and a good interim result, Mr Wills said.

Baycorp and United Networks both rose a healthy 11c to close at $12.11 and 651 respectively, while Sky City was up 8c to 715.

Ports of Auckland and Waste Management both gained 5c, to 460 and 399.

Healthy results appear to be having a positive effect on stock prices - United Networks last week reported a net profit of $48 million for the six months to June 30 while Waste Management said this week it had increased its half-year profit to $6.7 million.

On the downside, both Air NZ stocks suffered - As down 1c to 179 and Bs 6c weaker at 232.

- NZPA