NZ stocks: Telecom trading drives positive morning trend

12.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket traded on a positive note this morning, driven largely by market heavyweight Telecom.

At 11.30am, the benchmark NZSX-50 was up 2.36 points at 2291.32, while the NZSX-40 capital index was up 1.67 points at 2194.87.

Shortly after the market opened, there had been $40.2 million worth of shares traded on volume of 16.3 million. Among the 104 stocks traded were 32 rises and 24 falls.

Telecom shares were up 2c at 500, having traded $17.3 million worth on volume of 3.5 million.

ABN Amro Craigs operator Matt Willis said there had been good turnover in Telecom.

"That's what's driving the market," he told NZPA today.

"There's clearly some good offshore flows going through Telecom at the moment and it's creating a bit of volatility.

"I think, also, it's creating a good buying opportunity for value and yield investors," Mr Willis said.

This morning AMP shares were placed on a trading halt pending an announcement to the New Zealand Exchange. Its shares last traded at 783.

Shares in spirits distiller 42 Below, which debuted on the market yesterday, were down 2c at 36. The company's shares had an initial public offer price of 50c each.

Air New Zealand shares were unchanged at 53 after the company said on Tuesday it would slash 1500 jobs from its 10,000-strong workforce over the next four years.

Shares on the rise this morning included: Auckland International Airport up 3c at 642, Cavalier up 5c at 530, Contact Energy up 2c at 495, NZX up 5c at 465, Telstra up 5c at 565, Tower up 1c at 133, and Wrightson up 3c at 151.

Among those on the slide were: Briscoe down 1c at 194, Fletcher Forests down 1c at 130 , Genesis Energy down 3c at 111, Mainfreight down 3c at 142, Northport down 5c at 315, Powerco down 1c at 183, and The Warehouse down 11c at 550.

Overseas, the Nasdaq Composite Index ended down 4.09 points at 1939.10, the Dow Jones industrial average eased 9.93 points to 9803.05, while the Standard & Poor's 500 was down 2.72 points at 1046.76.

- NZPA