Telecom keeps thin NZ sharemarket in positive

12.00pm

A 7c rise to 513c by market leader Telecom kept the sharemarket in the positive in thin morning trading today.

The NZSX-50 index was up 12.51 points at 2202.79 while the NZSX-40 capital index was up 10.10 at 2127.50 at 11.45am.

Turnover was a dismal $11.3 million with half of that in Telecom.

Nervousness about last week's energy blackout in North America appeared to have disipated.

"It's business as usual," JB Were broker Murray Rutherford said.

The positive tone was a welcome return after two down days at the end of last week, he said.

US stocks rose slightly on feather-light volume on Friday as Wall Street regrouped after the biggest-ever power outage in North America.

With thousands of office workers stranded outside the city, trading volumes across all markets was woefully thin - even thinner than on a usual Friday in August.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average edged up 11.13 points, or 0.12 per cent, to finish at 9321.69. The broad Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose just 0.16 of a point and the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index ended up 1.66 points at 1702.00.

Steel & Tube was up 1c to 380 after this morning posting an 18 per cent rise in its annual profit to $21.5 million.

Sky TV fell 14c to 460 after the Sunday Star Times reported yesterday that a valuation of the company was likely to fall well short of the current price.

It said Independent Newspapers' (INL) commissioned valuation put the value of Sky at between $4 and $4.30.

INL owns two-thirds of Sky, and yesterday's report suggested it was likely to merge with Sky, having sold all its New Zealand newspaper assets to Fairfax Holdings at the end of June.

INL shares were up 5c to 425.

Air New Zealand was up 1c at 50. The Commerce Commission began a hearing today, expected to last six days, into Air NZ and Qantas' proposal to establish a strategic alliance.

There were few other moves of note.

The Warehouse continued to rally, rising 2c to 520, Tranz Rail was up 1c at 97, Pacific Retail was up 2c to 229, and Genesis Energy was up 7c to 107.

On the down side were ANZ down 25c to 1975, DB Breweries down 5c to 685, and NZX down 4c to 475.

There were 33 rises and 18 falls among the 100 stocks traded so far today.

- NZPA