NZ stocks: Shares follow upbeat Wall Street

12.15 pm

A good recovery on Wall Street has helped bolster the fortunes of several big companies on the New Zealand share market this morning.

"It's good. (The NZSE-40)'s up 13 at present and led by a good move upward by Carter Holt Harvey and, mainly, Telecom, but there's a recovery in a number of stocks," Richard Burton of Frater Williams said.

By 11.30am, the NZSE-40 capital index was up 21.66 points, or 1.06 per cent, to 2073.46, while the NZSE-10 capital index rose 15.95 or 1.77 per cent to 914.96.

Leading the way was Telecom which opened up 10c and quickly rose to 15c at 530.

Baycorp, which took a 90c-tumble this week after uncertainty over its merger proposal with Australian firm Data Advantage, was beginning to recover by mid-morning, rising 31c to 1180.

But many eyes were on energy companies Natural Gas Corporation and Trustpower this morning.

It appeared investors were reacting positively to Natural Gas's move yesterday to pull out of the retail electricity market after suffering heavy losses on the spot price market.

By late morning, its shares were up 8c to 1000. "I guess the bad news is out on Natural Gas. What they're doing now is to stem the tide," said Mr Burton.

Trustpower, which has been tipped as possibly the next power company to begin reviewing its operations, had not begun trading but closed yesterday unchanged at 340. It has shut down three of its South Island power stations because of low lake levels.

Mr Burton predicted NGC's fortunes would be largely influenced by the American and Australian share markets, particularly after better than expected CPI results in Australia yesterday.

American investors have also been more upbeat overnight, shaking off a 14-week low prompted by dour forecasts by AT&T Corp and mass layoffs at Lucent.

The Dow Jones average index of 30 industrials rose 164.55 points - or 1.61 per cent - to 10,405.67, to almost erase Tuesday's 183.30-points' fall.

And after languishing in negative territory earlier in the day, the tech-rich Nasdaq composite index closed on a firmer note, up 25.08 points - or 1.28 per cent - at 1984.32.

By 11.30am turnover on the New Zealand market was 9.52 million shares with a value of $29.5 million. Mr Burton predicted today's selling could be an improvement on the quiet trading of the last few days.

"The volumes in the last few days have been very light, and I think the markets are generally wanting to trend up."

Other shares of note included Sky City which was up 10c to 1140; Carter Holt Harvey, up 3c at 187; and brewer Lion Nathan which was down 15c to 520. Last night Lion Nathan announced it would not proceed with a partial offer for winemaker Montana, following an adverse ruling on a two-tiered bid by the market's regulators.

The NZSE SCI Capital Index for small businesses was also up by 0.28 per cent, or 15.58 points to 5619.19.

So far this morning there have been 48 rises, 20 falls and 122 stocks traded.

- NZPA