NZ Stocks: Sea change of sentiment boosts stocks

The sharemarket finished off a good week on a positive note yesterday, with across-the-board buying lifting the NZSE-40 capital index by nearly 1 per cent.

That gave the index a 0.9 per cent gain for the week and means it has lifted more than 6 per cent since its nadir of 1861 a fortnight ago.

Ord Minnett equities director John Rattray said there had been a general shift in sentiment towards New Zealand with several US tipsheets touting New Zealand assets as undervalued. "There has been a minor, but noticeable shift, in sentiment. It has been a little bit of a sea shift."

Salomon Smith Barney broker Craig Robins said the market was benefiting from a "top down story" starting earlier in the week with Moody's giving the New Zealand economy a reasonable report and confirming the sovereign credit rating.

The NZSE-40 came off its highs for the session but ended with an 18.24 point gain to 1980.48. The market was led by a healthy rebound in Telecom, although the leader ended up only 12c at 598 after being up 24c in the morning.

Telecom has rebounded 12 per cent from $5.33 on October 16, when media reports began to link it to a possible deal with Japan's NTT DoCoMo to buy the mobile assets of C&W Optus in Japan.

Ord Minnett equities director John Rattray said he was surprised that the latter reports had been viewed as a positive as he believed Telecom had enough on its plate since buying Australia's No 3 phone company AAPT. He puts yesterday's rise down to players wanting exposure to the undervalued New Zealand dollar.

Telecom's rebound was against the trend for telecos internationally. Telstra sank 25c to 800.

The Warehouse was another to have a good day, rising 25c to 630. It responded positively to the announcement it is shortly to rebuy eight million of its shares.

All the Fletcher stocks rose, with Energy up 19c to 849, Building 2c to 197 and Forests 3c to 37. Others to rise included Fisher and Paykel, 20c to 720, Carter Holt Harvey, 2c to 162, Nufarm, 7c to 395, Cedenco, 6c to 130, Genesis, 20c to 720, Lion Nathan, 5c to 490 and RadioWorks 15c to 775.

Going against the trend, Port of Tauranga dropped 15c to 530. At its annual meeting yesterday it said it was looking for new horizons and growth opportunities beyond the Bay of Plenty.

Contact ran into selling after rising another 6c in the morning. It finished 1c off at 284, although its has had a good run lately on fresh rumours that Edison Mission will increase its 40 per cent stake.

- NZPA