NZ stocks: Market firm in morning trade

12.20pm

Shares on New Zealand's stock market rose in morning trade today following the upbeat end to last week here and overseas.

At 11.40am the NZSX-50 gross index was 15 points or 0.66 per cent higher at 2308.1, while the NZSX-40 capital index was up 10 points or 0.44 per cent at 2208.46.

Turnover by 11.30am was $20.3 million.

In New York, stocks surged on Friday, racking up a third straight day of gains.

The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 44.35 points or 2.42 per cent to 1880.57. The broad Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 9.61 points or 0.94 per cent to 1029.85, and the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average rallied 84.51 points or 0.89 per cent to 9572.31.

In London, top shares raced higher with the FTSE 100 benchmark index closing up 64.9 points or 1.5 per cent at 4,274. The German and French bourses also closed higher as did Japan's Nikkei average, which ended up 115.76 points or 1.09 per cent at 10,709.29.

In New Zealand, UBS Warburg head of research Richard Leggat said early trade was light, "a steady and quiet start to the week", with prices a little better after Friday's strong local close.

Mr Leggat noted shares in courier company Freightways had not reacted much to the loss of one of the company's aircraft on Friday night. By 11.30am Freightways was down 2c to 181.

Stocks to go ex-dividend today were Cavalier Corp at 13 cents per share, Ebos 9.4cps, Port of Tauranga 12cps, Southport 4cps and Tourism Holdings Ltd 4cps.

By 11.30am Cavalier Corp was down 15c to 530, Ebos was unchanged at 322, Port of Tauranga was down 5c to 416, Southport was unchanged at 145, and Tourism Holdings Ltd was down 2c to 156.

Stocks to move in morning trade included: Auckland International Airport up 6c to 657, BayCorp Advantage up 4c to 262, Briscoe Group up a cent to 198, Carter Holt Harvey up 4c to 178, Fletcher Building up a cent to 430, Guinness Peat Group up 2c to 170.

Mainfreight up a cent to 146, NZX up 4c to 450, Pacific Retail Group up 2c to 260, Ryman Healthcare up 2c to 210, Sanford up 4c to 515, Sky City up 4c to 869, Steel & Tube Ltd up 2c to 367, Telecom up 4c to 511, Telstra up 3c to 571, Tower up a cent to 138, Tranz Rail up a cent 109, Trustpower up a cent to 501, the Warehouse up 5c to 590, and Waste Management up 6c to 391 .

Stocks to fall included: Air NZ down a cent to 52, Contact Energy down 2c to 510, Fisher & Paykel Appliances down 5c to 1475, Hellaby Holdings down 15c to 495, Promina down 4c to 361, and Sky TV down 3c to 495.

There were 52 rises and 19 falls among the 115 stocks traded by 11.30am.

- NZPA