NZ stocks: Telecom stars as stocks make up ground

The New Zealand sharemarket made up some lost ground yesterday after a better day on Wall Street.

The NZSE-40 capital index closed up 8.86 points, or 0.42 per cent, at 2116.56, and the top-10 index was up 8.14 points at 949.68.

Topping turnover of 30.86 million stocks, valued at $65.45 million, was Telecom's 5.02 million shares worth $26.06 million.

Nigel Scott of ABN Amro Craigs said the market closed just off its lows for the day.

"The market in general was relatively quiet today, there wasn't much sting in it and there were small movements in some of the leaders, with Telecom being the key."

Air New Zealand closed down 2c at 61c after its share price jettisoned 11 per cent on Wednesday, following persistent rumours about Qantas' interest in taking a stake.

Contrary to newspaper reports which had Qantas putting an offer for some of Air NZ at 35c per share, Qantas spokesman Michael Sharp said the airline was not in talks with the Government.

However, Qantas and Air NZ said last week they had been in discussions about the Australian airline taking a minority shareholding.

"Air New Zealand is still coming under some profit-taking. The rumours don't seem to go away," Mr Scott said.

"People have seen the stock way outperform the index on passive fund buying and on retail-driven activity ... it may have driven past its levels at this point in time, and as seen in a lot of the commentary from [chief executive] Ralph Norris, Air NZ still has a long way to go."

Also unsettling the market was concern that Air NZ was working towards a $189 million rights issue, as well as the threatened boycott by travel agents.

Elsewhere on the market, BIL International eased back 2c at 59c after a run-up earlier, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare lost 5c to $8.95 while F&P Appliances was unchanged at $9.40 ahead of its maiden annual result today.

Auckland International Airport lost 10c to $4.35.

"The big player of the day was Telecom, up 10c at $5.20. I think there's still money coming relative to our currency," Scott said.

New York-listed Telecom was attractive to overseas investors interested in the New Zealand market because of the currency, which has risen sharply in the past month.

"[Also] people have listened and looked at the Verizon stories coming out of Australia, and [Telecom] seems to have a slightly better amount of press after company meetings in the last month," Mr Scott said.

US company Verizon Communications yesterday poured cold water on speculation in the Australian press that it is planning to exit its 20.8 per cent Telecom stake.

In addition, Telecom and competitor TelstraClear announced on Wednesday night that they had reached an interim agreement on terms for interconnection.

Briscoe Group finished unchanged after reaching $2.24 at one stage, compared with the $1.41 issue price in December.

Briscoe, which owns Briscoes Homeware and Rebel Sports, said at its AGM this week it was considering expansion into three or four new types of retailing.

Fellow retailer Pacific Retail rose 4c to $3.04, The Warehouse was up 5c at $7.40, and Hallenstein Glasson gained 2c to $2.75.

INL was up 7c at $3.90, its pay TV asset Sky TV gained 4c to $4.55, casino operator Sky City rose 3c to $6.53, and Australasian brewer Lion Nathan ran up 17c to $5.77.

Baycorp Advantage eased 1c to $4.34, Fletcher Building shed 1c to $2.84, Guinness Peat Group lost 3c to $1.67, and Tranz Rail was down 10c at $3.40.

ANZ Bank put on 40c to $23.30.

Technology stock Advantage Group lost 2c to 46c after forecasting on Wednesday a rise in June year profit to $2.16 million, and announcing details of a $10 million capital notes issue.

* The New Zealand dollar was pegged back by profit-taking and moves from the Australian dollar yesterday, although it looks safe above its key support levels.

By 5pm the kiwi had softened to US48.95c from US49.08c at Wednesday's close.

An ANZ Investment Bank dealer said there was some good support around US57.20c in the aussie and US48.70c for the kiwi. "My expectation would be for it to hold at these support levels," he said.

- NZPA