NZ stocks: Telecom, Rubicon lead rally

The sharemarket had an active end to the week, with Telecom helping to push up the key top-40 index more than 1 per cent.

The NZSE-40 capital index ended up 25.89 points, or 1.26 per cent, at 2086.05, and the NZSE-SCI capital index gained 29.08 points at 5488.69.

Leading turnover was AMP Office shares, totalling $109.42 million in buying apparently related to the end of the Australian financial year, followed by Telecom's $26.29 million.

Total market turnover was 189.01 million stocks valued at $218.93 million.

Nigel Scott of ABN Amro said the market maintained momentum during the day with Telecom, up 22c at $5.63, making up a large part of the NZSE-40's gains.

"Overnight the stock did trade into the high 550s, due to the lower currency rate.

The major corporate news of the day was a resumption in the battle for control of premium winemaker Montana, after Lion Nathan was ordered by the Montana Standing Committee to sell 19 per cent of its shares in the company.

The order opens the way for British liquor giant Allied Domecq to possibly secure the control it has doggedly sought.

Montana's share price rallied 23c to close at $5.05 - the top of the bid ranges when both Lion and Montana were bidding last month.

Lion's share price initially fell 20c to $5.30 but staged a remarkable recovery to close down 1c at $5.49.

"There were several stocks that were bought up on sizeable volume - Rubicon was one of them," Mr Scott said.

The Fletcher Challenge offshoot closed up 7c at 70c after it announced on Thursday the sale of its Challenge petrol stations to oil giant Caltex for $50 million. Rubicon will also boost its share buyback to $60 million from $40 million.

"Fletcher Forests [up 1c at 30c], there was a lot of stock going through there. Fletcher Building was up 4c at $2.37," Mr Scott said.

Making up the bulk of the transactions yesterday were transtasman stock AMP, up 50c at $27.10, and AMP Office, down 1c at 83c.

Among other transtasman stocks, ANZ was up 25c at $20.75 and Telstra up 9c at $6.74.

Contact Energy rose 4c to $3.00, its highest in several weeks, and TrustPower lost 1c to $3.65.

Mid-cap stock Port of Tauranga gained 20c to $6.70 but Port of Auckland was down 10c at $5.70.

Air New Zealand A shares lost 2c to $1.09 and the Bs lost 1c to $1.45. Tranz Rail lost 5c to $3.80 and pay TV company Sky TV lost 5c to $3.40.

Evergreen Forests said it would raise $A4.88 million through a 9.3 million share offer to Danish investors. The company closed up 3c at 53c.

After the market closed energy retailer Natural Gas Corp, unchanged at 88c, confirmed a deal to sell its South Island customer base to state-owned Meridian Energy.

- NZPA