KEY POINTS:
Telecom was sold down after its third quarter result today, pegging back an otherwise mostly positive sharemarket.
The market got a positive lead from Wall Street, where stocks rallied on a rebound in the US dollar while retreating oil prices calmed fears about inflation, renewing investors' appetite for riskier assets, including undervalued technology shares.
Here Telecom shares fell 4c to 381 in early trading today after the company reported its March quarter net profit fell to $140 million from $239m a year ago, or $195m excluding contributions from its Yellow Pages Group that it sold.
Chief executive Paul Reynolds said Telecom's operations in New Zealand for the quarter were slightly better than anticipated.
For the nine months to March 31 net profit fell to $535 million from a readjusted $693m a year earlier. The NZSX-50 benchmark index was up 3.6 points to 3634 at 10.20am. No 3 stock Fletcher Building was up 15c to 880, continuing its recovery this month after last month's pounding. It rose 8c yesterday.
Contact Energy was again sitting unchanged on 970 after a sharp rise on Wednesday when BG Group announced a bid at a 40 per cent premium for Contact's 51 per cent owner Origin Energy.
Analysts believe BG will succeed and flick on the Contact stake, with Hong Kong firm CLP Holdings seen as the earlier front runner to buy.
Air New Zealand continued to rise, up 3c to 129, after hitting a low point at the start of the week. It announced fare hikes yesterday to counter rising fuel costs.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which rose 8c yesterday in response to the weaker NZ dollar, was up another 3c today to 268.
Mainfreight's 5c rise to 700 was one of the few movers of note in the top 50.
In the US, the three major indices closed at their highest levels since the first half of January as equities extended a rally started in mid-March on optimism that credit markets and the economy have begun to stabilise.
The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 189.87 points, or 1.48 per cent, to 13,010.00. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index surged 23.75 points, or 1.71 per cent, to 1409.34 and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 67.91 points, or 2.81 per cent, to 2,480.71.
- NZPA
