NZ stocks: Small rise in Telecom boosts market into black

The New Zealand sharemarket was mildly positive today after a small gain by market leader Telecom.

The benchmark NZSX-50 gross index closed up 0.28 per cent, or 6.37 points, at 2299.73 and the top-40 index was up 0.08 per cent at 2197.74.

Andrew McDouall of McDouall Stuart Securities said the New Zealand market was relatively quiet today as a result of lack of guidance from offshore.

The United States marks Columbus Day on Monday, although the New York Stock Exchange will be open, and Japan is closed today for Health Day.

Promina and AMP shares rose strongly today, with AMP rewarded for comments from chief executive Andrew Mohl in Sydney that the insurance company may be past the worst.

AMP gained 24c to a five-month high of 822 after Mr Mohl began updating analysts on details of the group's demerger plan.

Promina was up 13c at 365.

Telecom was up 2c at 512 after trading in negative territory earlier in the session.

However fellow market leaders failed to gain, with retailer The Warehouse down 3c at 565, Contact Energy shedding 3c to 496, Fletcher Building down 3c at 426, and casino company Sky City also down 3c, at 863.

Of the three stocks to go ex-dividend today, two managed to claw back some ground.

Auckland International Airport, which went ex-dividend today at 12.5 cents per share, closed down 9c at 639, Michael Hill (ex-dividend 10cps) lost 4c to 440, and Lyttelton Port (7.25cps) closed down 9c at 193.

Tranz Rail closed at 103, 3c above the bid price from Australian company Toll Holdings. Toll has made its takeover offer unconditional, although it fell about 5 per cent short of its 90 per cent threshold on Friday.

Toll has now extended the offer to November 7 in order pick up another 5 per cent, and has already announced management changes including the replacement of Tranz Rail head Michael Beard with David Jackson.

Elsewhere on the market, Sky TV was up 3c at 485, suitor Independent Newspapers Ltd rose 8c to 466, Fisher & Paykel Appliances gained 1c to 1481, Lion Nathan was up 8c at 630, New Zealand Refining rose 24c to 1600, NZX was up 10c at 450, Williams and Kettle rose 11c to 486, and BIL International rose 1c to 71.

F&P Healthcare was down 3c at 1265, Telstra lost 7c to 557, Freightways was down 3c at 176, Hallenstein Glasson lost 2c at 297, and Briscoe Group was down 3c at 195.

There were 50 falls and 46 rises among the 138 stocks traded.

Topping turnover of 26.38 million, valued at $62.96 million, was Telecom's $15.62 million worth of shares traded.

- NZPA