NZ stocks: Air New Zealand takes off in flat market

12.00pm

Air New Zealand rose 10.5 per cent today on an otherwise lacklustre New Zealand sharemarket.

At 11.30am the NZSE40 capital index was down 0.36 points to 2049.35 on light turnover worth $15 million.

"It's drifting lower, softer offshore markets ... the only highlight so far is Air NZ so they've continued to run," said ABN Amro Craigs retail equities adviser Nigel Scott.

Air NZ continued the trend it began on Friday, soaring up 4c to 42c on a mildly bullish brokerage report by UBS Warburg.

Today's price is Air NZ's highest since before the collapse of Ansett September which coincided with the fallout from the September 11 terrorism attacks in the United States.

Fletcher Forests topped the turnover but its ordinary shares were static at 23. Last week the company announced it was pulling out of a deal to buy the Central North Island Forestry Partnership.

Brokers were also keeping an eye on telco stocks, with Australia's Telstra sinking 4c to a year low of 600, albeit on light turnover. Telstra, which was trading last June at 830, lost 21c last Thursday after news that Australian competition authorities were reviewing Telstra's wholesale and retail cost structure.

Telecom was down 2c to 485.

Telecom was sitting quietly, down 2c at 485 on $4.1 million

Contact was up 4c at 405 ahead of its half year results on Thursday. The energy stock has crept up 24c during April. Contact reached a high last November of 419 while it was under offer from parent company Edison Mission.

Other moves included Fisher and Paykel Healthcare down 7c to 938, F&P Appliances up 13c to 963, Baycorp Advantage up 6c to 515, Briscoe down 2c to 208, Fletcher Building down 3c to 282 and the Warehouse down 5c to 735.

Wellington retailer Kirkcaldie and Stains was up 10c to 380 after reporting a 5.5 per cent profit increase in the six months to February.

Falls outnumbered rises by 42 to 20 on 101 stocks traded.

- NZPA