NZ stocks: shares drift higher in quiet morning session

12.20pm

The sharemarket recaptured Friday's mildly positive tone in early trade this morning, with modest gains by some blue chip stocks giving the key indices a gentle lift.

Shortly before midday the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was up 5.03 points to 2817.38, while the NZSX all capital index was up 1.25 points to 932.48.

Total turnover by 11.30am was worth $40.08 million and there were 48 rises and 24 falls among 126 traded.

"It just seems to be a quiet Monday," Direct Broking equities manager Brett Wilkinson said.

Leading the market higher were blue chip stocks Contact Energy up 3c to 600 and Fisher and Paykel Appliances up 3c to 403. Fletcher Building continued its recent bounce from a sell-off, rising 5c to 550.

Also rebounding after a recent hit was Guinness Peat Group which suffered last week on news of a substantial fine for its British subsidiary Coats Group. By 11.30am GPG was 2c higher at 210.

Market leader Telecom was a cent lower at 576, but as usual was the most traded stock by value of turnover with $19.38 million worth of shares changing hands.

However, Abano Healthcare was the most traded stock by number of shares traded with 73 million shares or about a third of its shares on issue traded.

On Friday, Cullen Investments said it intended to sell down its 35 per cent holding in Abano. This morning, the company's shares were three tenths of a cent lower at 12.5c.

Elsewhere, Nuplex rose 2c to 515 on positive comments in news stories over the weekend and The Warehouse continued something of a recent rally rising 2c to 410.

Takeover target Powerco was down 4c to 206. Australia's Prime Infrastructure yesterday said it was expecting a final surge of acceptances would buoy its $2.15 a share offer for the Taranaki-based electricity network company ahead of its close tomorrow.

Among other news this morning, Briscoe Group said it was planning to become the franchisor for the 38 store Sterling Sports chain. Briscoe shares were unchanged at 138 this morning.

Other stocks to move in early trade included: Auckland International Airport up 4c to 722, Michael Hill down 3c to 761, NZX down 11c to 730 and Pyne Gould Corporation up 11c to 315.

- NZPA