NZ stocks: Shares in black as retail, media rally

The New Zealand sharemarket bounced back into positive territory today as investors distracted by yesterday's America's Cup race and a US holiday got their eye back on the ball.

The benchmark NZSE-40 capital index closed up 10.19 points at 1953.86 on solid turnover worth $81 million - much of that in the last half hour of trading.

"We were quite nicely in positive territory in the morning and then we faded in the early afternoon. In the last half hour quite a bit of interest came back in some of the leaders and we finished higher," Forsyth Barr Frater Williams broker Alan Wills said.

A better night offshore also gave the local bourse a boost.

Gains among oils and drugs pushed Britain's FTSE 100 to its highest close in a month overnight, while in the United States, stocks rallied as investors brushed aside worries that a US-led war on Iraq was imminent and extended last Friday's buying spree after a long holiday weekend.

The retail sector led the local charge today, with The Warehouse recovering from recent losses to trade up 5c at 580 - off an 18-month low of $5.50 touched last week - while Briscoe Group shot up 12c to 250.

The Warehouse has been out of favour since reporting lower-than-expected second quarter sales two weeks ago, dragging other retailers down with it.

Media company Independent Newspapers Ltd and its 66 per cent subsidiary Sky Network TV rallied strongly following the release of their first half results.

INL, 45 per cent-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, t oday reported a net after tax profit of $38.8 million for the six months to December 31, up 43 per cent on the same period last year. The result included contributions from both its publishing operations and Sky TV.

Sky TV pared back its losses during the period to $4.37 million, compared with a $13.2 million loss a year earlier and said it will break even by the end of the calendar year.

INL closed up 11c at 316 after trading as high as 318 while Sky ended 8c higher at 368.

Other stocks to gain ground today included Auckland Airport, up 7c at 548; AMP, up 5c at 895; Baycorp Advantage, up a cent at 201; Carter Holt Harvey, up 5c at 176; Ports of Auckland, up 4c at 650; and Fletcher Forests, up 4c at 110.

Elsewhere on the market, stocks were trading in a holding pattern with investors reluctant to spend up large with the threat of war against Iraq looming.

Top stock Telecom eased 2c to 452; Contact Energy eased 2c to 462 as investors took a profit on its recent strong gains ; Fletcher Building eased a further 6c to 353; and Waste Management eased off 4c to 208.

Vertex Group bounced 7c to 165 after multi-millionaire businessman and former Air New Zealand chairman Sir Selwyn Cushing sold off his recently-acquired holding for 167 to an undisclosed bidder.

"There was a large trade put through early on at 167 and we've just had a substantial shareholder notice which would appear that the interests to do with Selwyn Cushing have exited. It hasn't been disclosed who actually bought it yet," Mr Wills said.

The stock has risen from $1.46 in the past week since it became the subject of a corporate play between Sir Selwyn and Christchurch businessman George Gould.

Shares in transport and logistics firm Mainfreight eased 2c to 108 after it posted a net after tax profit of $6.29 million for the nine months to December - up 37 per cent on the same period last year.

Rises outpaced falls by 55 to 38 among the 127 stocks traded today.

- NZPA