NZ stocks: Market on the rise

6.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket was on the up today after the long weekend, with Air New Zealand's annual general meeting providing the highlight to an uneventful session.

The NZSE-40 capital index closed up 4.02 points, or 0.20 per cent, at 2012.74, while the top-10 index was down 0.19 per cent at 901.25.

James Snell of First NZ Capital said trading today was relatively quiet with light volumes.

Turnover of 16.72 million stocks, valued at $57.83 million was topped by Telecom's 6.67 million stocks worth $33.72 million.

"The highlight of the day was the Air New Zealand annual meeting this afternoon," Mr Snell said. Air NZ gained 3c to close at 54 after predicting that core earnings for the 2003 year would double previous estimates.

The airline said if trading continued as expected, the full-year result would be significantly higher than the $100 million forecast in August.

Air NZ also repeated that it had yet to complete an equity deal with rival Qantas Airways.

"Everyone's waiting to see if any details will be announced in the next couple of months on a deal (between Qantas and Air NZ). With the continuous reporting, as soon as a deal is done they have to report it," Mr Snell said.

Volumes were reasonable in market leader Telecom, down 4c at 506, as the selldown of former key shareholder Verizon continued to wash through the market.

Fletcher Building, which has gone ex-dividend and lost 16c to close at 301, has shed 5 per cent in value during the last week.

Elsewhere on the market, Powerco was down 1c at 172 after its shareholders approved the energy distributor's plan to buy $810 million worth of UnitedNetworks assets.

Sky Television was up 6c at 361, Tranz Rail gained 10c to 145 after last week's selldown to a new low of 135, Auckland International Airport was up 5c at 545 and Carter Holt Harvey was down 1c at 159.

Baycorp Advantage was up 20c at 343, infrastructure investor Infratil was down 7c at 174, and Contact Energy gained 7c to 387.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 10c at 1085, and Appliances gained 20c to 1090.

Annual general meetings this week include publisher Independent Newspapers Ltd and Sky City casino was down 1c at 300, while Sky City, which has been on a roll this year, gained 8c to a fresh high of 770.

There were 45 rises and 44 falls on the 127 stocks traded.

On Wall St on Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 75.95 points, or 0.90 per cent, to 8368.04; the Nasdaq composite dropped 15.34 points, or 1.15 per cent, to 1315.79; and the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped 7.43 points, or 0.83 per cent, to 890.22.

- NZPA