NZ stocks: Market lifts after anniversary passes

The New Zealand sharemarket was trading positively today, with world markets having put the September 11 anniversary behind them.

However, turnover was very light with only a handful of stocks traded.

On Wall St, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average rose 39.30 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 9459.76; the broad Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 5.50 points, or 0.54 per cent, to 1016.42; and the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 22.28 points, or 1.22 per cent, to 1846.09.

By late morning on the New Zealand market, leader Telecom was down 1c at 501 on turnover worth $4.82 million.

The benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was up 0.18 points, or 0.01 per cent, at 2213.57, while the top-40 index gained 0.01 per cent to 2130.15.

Turnover of 5.24 million stocks was valued at $13.00 million.

Alan Wills of Forsyth Barr Frater Williams said Fletcher Forests, up 1c at 115, was attracting some buying interest ahead of its annual result this afternoon.

"I think it's to do with the potential update on the asset sales process. The result is going to be secondary to that and the size of the write-down on the carrying value of the assets," Mr Wills said.

The company, which is selling its entire forest estate, officially valued at about $1.2 billion, was due to report its result on August 29, but it was granted an extension to finalise the value of its forest crop.

"A write-down of anything up to 25 per cent would not be a surprise to us," he said.

Fletcher Forest shareholder Rubicon was up 1c at 70, while Guinness Peat Group, which holds a 19.9 per cent stake in Rubicon, was up 1c at 169.

Other stocks to climb were Auckland International Airport, up 1c at 643, Contact Energy, up 2c at 474, AMP, up 2c at 740, ANZ, up 30c at 2030, The Warehouse, up 5c at 520, and Tourism Holdings Ltd, up 1c at 137.

Independent Newspapers Ltd fell 2c to 453, and its takeover target Sky TV lost 3c to 482.

INL, which sold its New Zealand newspaper assets earlier this year for $1.2 billion, is offering $3.35 in cash for each Sky share, plus three INL shares for every 10 Sky shares.

"It got as high as 460 in early trading, people are trying to work out what's going on there ..." Mr Wills said.

"Our feeling is that they may be forced to increase their bid for Sky TV -- not substantially, but a little bit, even though the company's adamant they're not going to do that to get 100 per cent acceptance.

"It's inefficient to have two listed entities which basically own the same business."

Carter Holt Harvey was down 1c at 167, Sky City lost 2c to 873, Fletcher Building was down 1c at 414, Hellaby Holdings lost 6c to 492 and Restaurant Brands was down 2c at 131.

Westpac was up 1c at 1722 after announcing it had withdrawn from the bidding process for the National Bank.

"It's pretty quiet, the level of participation in the market is down. We've been through a pretty positive reporting season, but that's reflected in share prices at the moment," Mr Wills said.

There were 34 rises and 18 falls on the 96 stocks traded.

- NZPA