NZ stocks: Fletcher, Telecom stand out

The sharemarket was positive yesterday after at least one cause of uncertainty over Fletcher Challenge stocks - whether yesterday's shareholder meeting would go ahead - was removed.

The NZSE-40 capital index closed up 20.90 points, or 1.04 per cent, at 2023.31 while the small companies' NZSE-SCI capital index was up 10.97 points at 5298.87.

Turnover of 39.14 million stocks valued at $146.14 million was dominated by Fletcher Energy's 7.44 million shares trading hands, valued at $69.63 million.

Fletcher Building followed close behind with 5.51 million shares, valued at $11.37 million.

At the end of trade, Fletcher Energy was up 15c at $9.35, Building rose 6c to $2.08 and Forests was unchanged at 32c.

Nigel Scott of ABN Amro said many market players were at the Fletcher meeting, and the market adopted a positive tone after the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday morning.

"The market seemed to change a little bit [to positive] with the view that Building was being bought, maybe the market's saying there's a bit more positive tone from Shell, and a little bit of reinvestment money hitting the New Zealand market," Mr Scott said.

Telecom jumped 16c to $5.41, and Baycorp was up 10c at $1.20.

Air New Zealand, whose chief executive Gary Toomey is steering it through some turbulence, saw its A shares gain 7c to $1.46 and the Bs up 6c at $1.80.

Carter Holt Harvey was steady - up 1c at $1.88 - and although Contact Energy was down 1c at $2.89, more than one million shares changed hands.

DB Group was up 10c at $5.40, Fisher and Paykel gained 5c to $8.65 and Axa rose 12c to $3.42.

The Warehouse rose 11c to $5.57, despite analysts' forecasts yesterday that losses from newly acquired Australian operations and a tight New Zealand retail market are likely to translate into a flat first-half profit.

Brierley Investments, up 2c at 37c, showed no ill effects from the news that the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain was already affecting its 46 per cent-owned hotel chain Thistle.

Investors placed the New Zealand dollar on the back burner yesterday with all eyes turned towards a see-sawing battle between the US dollar and the yen.

"The focus for the last 24 hours has been more on US dollar-yen than anything else, and the aussie and the kiwi have taken a bit of a back seat," BNZ foreign exchange manager Greg Ball said.

In the latest disaster to strike the Japanese currency, the yen slumped to six-week troughs against the US dollar for the second straight session in New York on Monday. But the yen staged a comeback yesterday after comments by Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa dampened speculation Japan might try to drive the yen lower to help the economy.

- NZPA