NZ Stocks: Fletcher Energy rides in Telecom's wake

Telecom provided the thrust and Fletcher Energy was right at its shoulder as the sharemarket shook off a quiet start to finish strongly yesterday.

Greenslades client adviser David Fergusson said it was a steady trading day, with Telecom providing the impetus for the good turnover.

"We saw a couple of good lines of Telecom go through, one of 5 million and another one of 2.5 to 3 million."

Telecom closed up 13c to 650 on "extremely high turnover" of 13.80 million shares.

Fletcher stocks gained good ground on the back of Telecom's surge. Energy closed up 25c at a new high of 910 after reaching 920 at one point.

Turnover was also strong, with 4.36 million shares traded.

Mr Fergusson said interest in Fletcher Energy was good, despite overnight falls in oil prices and in the Wall St price of Capstone Turbine, in which Energy has an 11 per cent holding.



"We've seen some very keen buying interest coming out of institutional brokers - perhaps outbidding each other for the stock."

Fletcher Building gained 4c to 232 and Fletcher Forests closed up 3c to 85, on turnover of 1.18 million, after slipping earlier in the day.

The Warehouse also made good gains with active trading from about 1pm onwards, coinciding with the interest in Fletcher stocks, Mr Fergusson said.

"Perhaps there was a large buy order that came into the market in the afternoon and that's provided the catalyst for a reasonable turnover and price rises in the Fletchers and in The Warehouse as well."

Lion Nathan, which announced it had sold its Australian Pepsi business to Cadbury Schweppes, closed up 3c to 478. Among other rises, AMP closed up 22c to 2300, Telstra gained 20c to 815 and media group Wilson & Horton finished up 5c at 1270.

Carter Holt Harvey closed up 2c to 177 on good turnover of 1.75 million shares. Of the falls, Baycorp dropped 25c to 1300, Ports of Tauranga fell 16c to 560 and Nufarm closed down 11c at 409.NZPA