NZ stocks: Telecom recovery and AMP strength lift shares

12.00pm

A partial recovery by Telecom and further strength by AMP lifted the sharemarket mildly into the black in morning business today.

AMP rose another 10c to 785, boosting its gains since reporting a $2.2 billion loss on August 21 to 60 per cent.

It is being stalked by National Australia Bank which is reportedly telling institutional investors that it wants to carry out a full examination of AMP Ltd's Australian operations before launching a takeover bid.

Market leader Telecom rose 3c to 496 after losing 12c yesterday when it went ex a 5c dividend.

The benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was up 2.83 points to 2211.34 at 11.35am while the NZSX-40 capital index rose 2.03 points to 2128.93.

Turnover was boosted to over $108 million by Hutt Mana Energy Trust's sale of its 6.65 per cent stake in gas network company NGC Holdings.

It sold the 51.5 million shares at 158c each compared with the 169c price the stock closed at yesterday. NGC shares fell 4c to 165 on market.

Postie Plus's $1 shares debuted at 137 giving a healthy profit for those who stagged the shares. They later sagged to 127.

There were few other moves of note.

DB Breweries rose 10c to 700, Lion Nathan rose 5c to 595, Pyne Gould Guinness rose 3c to 129, The Warehouse rose 6c to 386, Wesptac NZ rose 25c to 1650, and Vertex fell 6c to 144.

There were 30 rises and 32 falls among the 101 stocks traded.

- NZPA