NZ stocks: Overseas gains see market open positively

12.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket opened on a positive note this morning following upward movements on the overseas markets at the end of last week.

US stocks rallied on Friday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq chalking up their first four-week winning streak since October, as forecasts from computer hardware giants Nvidia Corp and Intel Corp lured investors back to the market after a two-day slump. European markets were also up on Friday.

The positive lead from overseas saw NZ50 Gross Index up by 0.702 per cent or 13.89 points to 1993.32 by midday, the NZSE40 Capital Index was up 0.587 per cent or 11.6 points to 1970.72.

Market leader Telecom's shares were up 7c to 485 in early trade.

JB Were broker Gareth Stythe said the market's focus this morning had been on Telecom with the Commissioner for Telecommunications releasing a decision on the price at which Telecom can sell services to TelstraClear.

"It's come in at a 16 per cent discount to the retail price that they're allowed to charge and that's bang in the middle of the range they determined in their range resolution. It hasn't shocked the market too much. As a result their (Telecom) shares have moved up a bit."

The shares of TelstraClear parent, Telstra, were up 1c to 476 by midday.

Australasian financial services giant AMP continued to recover this morning after its recent troubles, at 12pm they were 32c higher at 608.

"That's largely because of a late run in the Australian shares on Friday so it's just catching up a little bit", Mr Stythe said.

Also staging a recovery was Waste Management which had "a bit of a negative week last week" after it emerged that its managing director had sold his shares in the company. The company's shares were up 7c to 319 in early trade this morning.

Tranz Rail continued to firm, rising 2c to 49c. "Investors are looking for an announcement on some asset sales to make the cashflow situation more certain for this quarter," said Mr Stythe.

Elsewhere on the market at midday morning Baycorp Advantage was up 5c to 183, Carter Holt Harvey up 3c to 161, Independent Newspapers up 2c to 410, and NZ Refining was up 40c to 173.

Auckland International Airport shares were down 5c to 520, Fletcher Building was down 2c to 322, and Lion Nathan was down 4c to 618.

There were 35 rises and 17 falls on 98 stocks traded by 11am.

Turnover was $14.4 million.

- NZPA