NZ stocks: Shares tread water in quiet trade

12.15pm

The sharemarket moved sideways in quiet trade this morning with a modest gain by market leader Telecom providing a slightly positive bias.

By 11.30am, the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was up 3.16 points at 2779.80, while the NZSX all capital index was up a point at 934.70. Turnover was worth $24.48 million and there were 34 rises and 32 falls among 118 stocks traded.

"It's just quiet across the board," Hamilton, Hindin, Greene main share dealer Grant Williamson said. "We're lacking news, there's very little influence from anywhere moving this market this morning."

Mr Williamson said trading volumes had been light pretty much across the board with the exception of Telecom, "where we've seen a reasonable volume and a slight improvement in share price".

Telecom was up 4c to 613.

"That would pretty much be on the back of the firmer offshore markets overnight and a bit of a recovery after yesterday's sell down."

Fletcher Building also bounced back this morning from a small sell down yesterday and was up 5c to 492, albeit on light volume.

Elsewhere, other moves included: Auckland International Airport was up 4c to 700, Carter Holt Harvey was down a cent to 217, Contact Energy was down 3c to 601, Infratil was up 2c to 314, Mainfreight down 4c to 202, Michael Hill was up 2c to 617, Sky TV down 2c to 528, Telstra up 2c to 546, Toll NZ down 3c to 185, Tower down 2c to 190, TrustPower up 4c to 464 and The Warehouse was down 2c to 443 .

- NZPA