NZ stocks: Warehouse and Briscoe rise on sales reports

12.00pm

The sharemarket was mildly in positive territory this morning mainly thanks to a small gain in leader Telecom and relief buying in The Warehouse and Briscoe Group.

The Warehouse reported its third quarter sales where bad news had been flagged on Friday resulting in aggressive selling. Brokers assessed the sales were in line with revised expectations and the stock rose 9c to 440 to build on yesterday's 25c partial recovery.

"People are relieved," JB Were broker Murray Rutherford said.

Briscoe, which had its own profit warning and selldown earlier this year, reported first quarter sales up 11.25 per cent on last year when adjusted for a change in balance date and on a same store basis. Briscoe was up 4c to 194.

Mr Rutherford said there was a little concern at the Briscoe report of profit erosion but also relief that there was no substantial deterioration of sales.

Telecom was up 1c to 471.

The top 50 gross index was up 5.77 at 1966.19 while the top 40 capital index was up 4.74 at 1951.59 at 11.30am. Turnover was reasonable at $45 million.

Contact Energy was up 4c to 434 despite speculation in the Australian Financial Review today that 51 per cent owner Edison Mission was considering selling its holding. Mr Rutherford said his firm doubted the veracity of the report and noted that even if it was true, it was unlikely to affect the stock much as it was almost certain to be a trade sale.

There was still good interest in AMP, which easily topped the turnover at $19 million. It was up 2c to 6.30 after its 36 per cent pummelling yesterday. That resulted in AMP being knocked down from being Australia's 10th largest listed company to number 20.

Sky City was down 10 at 785, Fisher & Paykel Appliances was up 20c at 1085, F&P Healthcare was up 10c at 1095, Michael Hill was up 15c at 440, Port of Tauranga was up 10c at 430 and Auckland Airport was down 6c at 509.

There were 41 rises and 18 falls among the 97 stocks traded.

- NZPA