NZ stocks: Market hauls itself into positive territory

12.00pm

The sharemarket hauled itself into positive territory this morning thanks to improving fortunes in Telecom and Contact Energy shares.

At 11.30am, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 6.81 points at 2326.35, while the NZSX-40 capital index was up 5.73 points at 2220.48.

Market heavyweight Telecom was back at 500, having earlier been down 4c at 495. It had traded $11.7 million worth on volume of 2.3 million.

So far, shares worth $20.2 million worth had been traded on volume of six million on the New Zealand Exchange.

Among the 100 stocks traded were 19 rises and 27 falls.

Contact Energy shares surged 11c to 526, an all time high after it confirmed a September year profit of $118.3 million on Friday.

The profit was 11 per cent up on last year and was buoyed by a 27 per cent rise in electricity prices.

ASB Securities broker Andrew Kelleher said Contact was the standout performer in an otherwise quiet day's trading.

"I think people have had a chance to look through the (Contact) result...and its given them a chance to re-rate it," he told NZPA today.

Meanwhile, shares in Carter Holt Harvey were up 2c at 181 after reports in Australia that the forest product company was considering selling its consumer brands division.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances today told NZX it had completed its share subdivision and now had 261,084,720 ordinary shares on issue.

The whiteware manufacturer's shares were up 1.7c at 373, having traded between 231 and 383 this year.

Other shares on the rise today were: Air New Zealand up 1c at 48, Dorchester up 7c at 220, GRD Macraes up 6c at 220, Guinness Peat Group up 1c at 181, Sky City up 3c at 465, Turners Auctions up 5c at 432, and Wrightson up 1c at 148.

Among shares on the slide were: ANZ Bank down 35c at 1850, Fletcher Forests down 1c at 130, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 1c at 1184, Hellaby down 5cv at 460, NZX down 3c at 507, Tranz Rail down 1c at 144, and The Warehouse down 2c at 580.

There had been $9500 worth of shares traded on volume of 34,000 on the New Zealand Alternative Exchange by late-morning.

Overseas, Dow Jones industrial average dipped 69.26 points to 9768.68, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 8.06 points to 1050.35, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 37.09 points to 1930.26.

- NZPA