NZ stocks: Market gains 0.8pc after sluggish start

Share prices closed on their highs today after the market had a sluggish start.

"It didn't open with a bang, it worked its way up," said Goldman Sachs JBWere senior investment adviser Peter Stokes. "The US market underpinned things."

The influence from the US was positive where the Dow surged 1.3 per cent to a 2-1/2 year high. However, the local market took time to shrug off yesterday's holidays in Australia and Auckland.

The market was led up by the leaders, Telecom and Carter Holt Harvey. Telecom starred with a 10c rise to 561 just 6c shy of the 2-1/2 year high touched last week.

Carter Holt Harvey, expected to report good news in its annual result on Thursday despite a $900 million writedown of its forests, rose 3c to 214. Carter Holt at one stage traded at a four-year high of 217.

Those two helped push the indices up 0.8 per cent to multi-year highs. The NZSX-50 gross index rose 21.10 points to 2524.24, while the NZSX-40 capital index rose 18.78 to 2342.63, a level not seen since December 1997.

Market turnover totalled 54.5 million worth $96.7 million with 56 rises and 51 falls on 144 stocks traded. Trading in Telecom was worth $39.7m and Carter Holt $17.9m.

Contact Energy continued to be a positive influence on the market, rising another 5c to 575 and ending just 2c below its record price.

Buying was mostly across the board. Others to perform strongly included: Fletcher Building, up 9c to 412, The Warehouse, 7c to 527, Steel & Tube, 4c to 299, Freightways, 5c to 235, and Sky TV, 8c to 538.

Exchange operator NZX pushed ahead again, rising 9c to 625. It is up 11 per cent this year. Another of this year's strong performers, NZ Refining, rose 15c to 1665.se to fall AMP dropped 14c to 536 after National Australia Bank revealed the extent of its foreign exchange losess from rogue trading -- A$360 million ($418 million).

Investors figure NAB may not have the wherewithall to bid for AMP as had been expected in some quarters.

Ports of Auckland lost 2c to 780 as BP announced an early exit from one its leases.

Others to go against the trend were DB Group, down 20c to 805, Lion Nathan, 3c to 677, NGC, 2c to 233, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, 10c to 1240 and Powerco, 2c to 207.

- NZPA