NZ stocks: Shares rally, buoyed by Telecom, offshore

12.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket traded higher this morning, buoyed by strength in market heavyweight Telecom.

The benchmark NZSE-40 index was 10.38 points, or half a per cent, higher at 1931.43 by 11.30am.

Turnover of $27 million was dominated by Telecom's $12.5 million -- much of that pre-market. Telecom was up 4c at 450.

ASB Securities dealer Andrew Kelleher said the local bourse appeared to be taking its lead from the United States, where stocks snapped a four-week losing streak on Friday.

In a highly anticipated speech, top UN weapons inspector Hans Blix offered a mixed picture on Iraq that provided fuel to both hawks and doves on the Security Council facing a decision on war with Baghdad.

That saw the Dow Jones industrial index leap over 2 per cent to 7908.80. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 2.14 per cent to 834.89, while the tech-laced Nasdaq was up 2.56 per cent to 1310.17.

Here, retailers were at the front of the rally with The Warehouse charging ahead 10c to 590, Briscoe Group up 7c to 240 and Michael Hill Jeweller piling on 20c to 515.

The sector took a bath last week as mixed sales reports put a question-mark over the buoyancy of consumer spending.

The Warehouse dipped to a fresh low of 550 during the week after disappointing the market with lower-than-expected second quarter sales, while Michael Hill touched a low of 485 after forecasting a slightly lower first half profit of about $7.5 million.

In other moves Baycorp Advantage added 2c to 199; Auckland International Airport was off 2c to 533; Carter Holt Harvey was down 3c to 169, but had gone ex-dividend 3c; Fletcher Building was up 6c at 362 after shedding 3.5 per cent last week despite beating analysts' expectations in its first half result; Fisher and Paykel Appliances was steady at 1010; its Healthcare cousin eased 5c to 995 after rallying on Friday as its December quarter profit rose 86 per cent; and Contact Energy was steady at 452.

Rises outnumbered falls by 44 to 28 among the 110 stocks traded so far.

Waste Management eased 2c to 288 ahead of its full year result later today. Ports of Auckland, which releases its half year figures today, was flat at 654.

This week is a busy one on the reporting front, with INL, Sky TV, and Wrightson set to release results later in the week.

- NZPA