NZ stocks: Telecom surge helps market push to fresh highs

11.15pm


A rally in the share price of market leader Telecom today helped push the sharemarket's two main indices to fresh highs, a broker said.

At 5pm, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 10.90 points at 2479.77, its highest level since it began in March last year.

The NZSX-40 capital index was up 10.24 points at 2307.84, its highest level since late April 1998.

ABN Amro Craigs financial adviser Chris Jardine said a surge in Telecom's share price -- up 7c at 552, a two year high -- had underpinned the market's gains.

Of the $93.4 million worth of shares traded on New Zealand Exchange today, $41.2 million worth came from transactions in Telecom shares.

"Telecom was the standout today. There was a fair bit of buying into Telecom today," Mr Jardine told NZPA.

While the New Zealand dollar, which had come off its recent highs to close at US67.29 cents today, was a factor, investors were probably anticipating the nature of Telecom's half year result, due out next month.

"There's obviously a bit of interest in that and... there's a bit of feeling that there might be a bit of a tide change in terms of Telecom with issues such as dividends," he said.

In other market news, Sky City Entertainment recovered from a 3c fall yesterday on concerns about its plans to buy the MGM Mirage casino in Darwin, Australia.

It had fallen 9c on Wednesday ahead of the announcement it was in talks to buy the casino. Today it was up 9c to 464.

"Generally the feeling is that the acquisition is, should it go ahead, a good story," Mr Jardine said.

Medical equipment maker Fisher & Paykel Healthcare closed up 50c at 1225 after it confirmed it had won a shared contract worth about US$60 million ($90.41 million) to supply United States company Apria Healthcare Group.

Apria is the biggest US provider of home health-care services.

Other shares on the move today included: Air NZ up 1c at 50, Baycorp Advantage up 7c at 332, Hellaby up 3c at 508, Mooring Systems up 20c at 290, NZ Refining up 9c at 1620, Contact Energy down 5c at 558, Independent Newspapers Ltd down 12c at 501, NZX down 5c at 620, and The Warehouse down 8c at 524.

Among the 143 stocks traded were 51 rises and 43 falls.

There was $11,600 worth of shares traded on the New Zealand Alternative Exchange today.

- NZPA