NZ stocks: Market fails to match Wall St rally

12:00 pm

The New Zealand sharemarket was a touch higher this morning, but lacked the vigour of its offshore counterparts.

The benchmark NZSE-40 index was up 5.01 points at 2130.68 by 11am, on turnover worth $14.5 million.

But that rise paled in comparison with Wall St, where the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average rallied 157.14 points to 9920.00 -- its highest level since January 15.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index also put on a strong show, up 16.43 points at 1130, while the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index rose 20.66 points to 1934.10.

"We are not racing ahead as quickly in ratio terms as we should, with the US rally," DF Mainland's Greg Arnott said.

"The local market is looking fully priced."

Among the leading stocks, Telecom was up 3c at 546, Carter Holt Harvey added a cent to 193, Sky City was up 3c at 605 and The Warehouse rose a cent to 669.

Second tier stocks to rally this morning included Briscoe Group, up a cent at 179, Restaurant Brands, up 2c at 200, and United Networks, up 18c at 830.

UnitedNetworks today reported a strong net profit of $120.8 million for 2001, up from $109.3 million in 2000.

It announced a fully imputed 18cps dividend, up from last year's 17cps, payable on April 12. The total dividend for the year will be 35cps against 33cps in 2000.

Contact Energy was flat at 376 ahead of Sunday's deadline for Edison Mission's $4.14 per share takeover bid.

On the downside, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare slipped 21c to 1480, Southport slipped a cent to 150, Powerco was down a cent at 189 and Tower was down 6c at 527.

Powerco said yesterday it was on target to achieve its revised profit of $33.4 million, following a review of the company's unaudited third quarter results.

The Taranaki-based company also said it has ended discussions with Eastern Bay Energy Trust over a possible takeover of fellow lines company Horizon Energy.

The pair, who control 4.9 per cent and 77 per cent of Horizon respectively, had considered making an offer for the remaining shares, owned by around 3000 largely mum and dad shareholders -- most from the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

In all, rises outnumbered falls by 33 to 20 among the 104 stocks traded so far.

Mr Arnott picked the market would continue to improve throughout the day.

- NZPA