NZ stocks: Market rebounds on selected blue chips

The New Zealand sharemarket rose more than half a per cent today as investors showed interest in a select group of stocks.

Fletcher Building, Sky City and the Warehouse were all big risers or recoverers, while investors took a shine to the energy sector on the prospect of higher gas and power prices.

The NZSE40 Capital Index was up 12.08 points to 1947.92 on a turnover worth $77.2 million, a slight rebound from Friday' loss of more than a per cent.

However, only certain blue-chip stock were benefiting today, said Nigel Scott, a broker with ABN Amro Craigs.

"People have only got a few stories they're really probably following at the moment."

One of those stories was The Warehouse, which was a major factor in Friday's loss after disappointing sales figures and a weak profit forecast.

Today the stock recovered 8c to 596, at one stage touching 619, after losing 35c on Friday, as investors reconsidered their analysis.

Meanwhile, rising star Fletcher Building, nudged a new high of 379 before easing back to 378, up 9c, on $9.5 million worth of shares.

The stock has risen 10 per cent within a week and a half in anticipation of Fletcher Building's first half result on Wednesday.

"It's been a stirling performance, hasn't it," said Mr Scott. "Market's had a higher valuation for a long time but finally the market's paying that ahead of its result."

Casino operator Sky City shot up 24c to 869 albeit on low volumes.

Others on the upside included Carter Holt Harvey up 3c to 176, Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 29c to 1060, and Telecom, up 4c to 449 on good flow worth $28.2 million shares, compared with Telstra's decline of 7c to 461.

Mr Scott thought there was not so much domestic activity in Telecom at the moment, as utility and electricity stocks took a greater share of the limelight.

Contact Energy surged 6c to 426 after Friday's announcement that the country's largest gas field Maui was running out of gas faster than expected, prompting predictions of higher power and gas prices.

As the market closed, Contact also posted a first quarter result of $18.4 million, 9 per cent lower than the corresponding period last year after unusuals were stripped out.

Meat company Richmond rose 2c to 300 on high turnover after shareholder North Meats lifted its stake from more than 10 per cent at $3.00 per share.

On the downside, Lion Nathan fell 11c to 580, Tranz Rail was down 2c to 135, and vegetable processor Cedenco lost 30c to 160 after a warning on Friday of a lower 2003 full year profit and no dividends for the next three years while the company sought new acquisitions.

Falls narrowly outnumbered rises 49 to 47 on 134 stocks traded.

- NZPA