NZ stocks: Market struggles into positive territory

Positive showings by some of this year's strugglers helped the sharemarket benchmark index nudge into positive territory in early business today.

The Warehouse, heavily sold in recent weeks due to its problems in Australia, slipped 2c to 428.

AMP, which has already indicated its annual result on Thursday will be better than early fears, rose 8c to 555.

Sky City, which has lost 7.5 per cent in the last six weeks on concern about how its expansion in Australia will go, lifted 4c today to 429.

Waste Management, which yesterday announced plans for a second large step into Australia, was down 2c to 418.

At 11.30am, the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was up 0.13 points at 2441.88, while the NZSX-40 capital index was down 0.58 points at 2235.99.

Market leader Telecom fell 2c to 566. It went ex its 5cps quarterly dividend yesterday.

Turnover in Telecom was worth $6.4 million of the market's total of $24.9 million.

Contact Energy was up 10c to 510. It is another stock which has been sold in recent weeks. The selling has been on concern about the price cornerstone shareholder Edison Mission will get for its 51 per cent stake.

Carter Holt Harvey was up 1c at 192. There were reports CHH will get a top price for its tissue business, currently on the block.

The Dominion Post reported that Swedish giant Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget was leading the auction charge.

Other movers among the leaders included: Ports of Auckland, up 11c to 701, Sanford, down 3c to 495, Westpac NZ, down 5c to 1790, Fletcher Building, down 3c to 408, Nuhaka Farm Forestry down 10c to 500, Lion Nathan up 9c at 678 and Tower, up 3c to 151.

In all, there were 20 stocks up and 42 down among the 1044 stocks traded in the first quarter of an hour.

The influence from the US was mostly positive. US stocks rose after manufacturing data indicated a rebound in hiring may be on the horizon and fed investors' expectations for Friday's closely watched February job report.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 93.56 points, or 0.88 per cent, TO 10,677.48, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 10.90 points, or 0.95 per cent, to 1,155.84. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 27.98 points, or 1.38 per cent, to 2,057.80, according to the latest available data.

- NZPA