NZ stocks: Light trading on local market

12.40pm

The New Zealand sharemarket climbed higher this morning with both major indices posting increases on Friday's closing levels.

At 11.30am, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 10.87 points at 2317.79, while the NZSX-40 capital index was up 9.08 points at 2214.28.

There had been $24.1 million worth of shares traded on volume of 8.1 million.

Among the 118 stocks traded were 40 rises and 30 falls.

Market heavyweight Telecom lead the way, its shares up 5c at 489, having traded $6.9 million worth on volume of 1.4 million.

Macquarie Equities broker David Cleal said trading on New Zealand Exchange had been light today.

Telecom had pushed the market's positive direction today, he told NZPA today.

Other stand-out performers included Sky City Entertainment, up 10c at 905 after announcing that on November 14 each existing ordinary share would be split into two.

"Those shares are firming up on pre-split news," Mr Cleal said.

Sky City had just posted a June year net profit after tax of $107.2 million, 26 per cent up on the previous year.

Utilities investor Infratil today posted a $12.5 million net profit after tax (npat) for the six months to September. The first-half npat was 36 per cent down on the same period last year.

Infratil shares were up 1c at 250 at 11.30am.

In other sharemarket news, Freightways and Property for Industry go ex-dividend today at, respectively, 3.4 cents per share (cps) and 1.35cps.

Freightways shares were unchanged on 190, while those in PFI were down 1c at 91.

Shares in Auckland International Airport were up 5c at 666 after it last week restated its positive outlook for the summer season, including a rise in passenger numbers.

Shares on the rise included: Cavalier up 5c at 550, Contact Energy up 3c at 508, DB Breweries up 5c at 765, New Zealand Refining up 4c at 1605, NZX up 5c at 490, Postie Plus up 2c at 120, and Vertex up 3c at 149.

Among those on the slide were: Allied Farmers down 5c at 225, AMP down 5c at 750, Guinness Peat Group down 1c at 184, Hellaby down 6c at 474, Ports of Auckland down 4c at 821, and Sky Network TV down 1c at 516.

At the close of United States markets on Friday, the Dow Jones closed up 14.51 points at 9801.12, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index ended up 3.77 points at 1050.71, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.48 of a point to 1932.21.

- NZPA