NZ stocks: Telecom lifts market

The sharemarket closed solidly this afternoon, buoyed by gains in top stock Telecom.

Telecom gained 9c to 536 over the course of the day -- with about 13 million shares traded -- pulling up the broader market.

Hamilton, Hindin, Greene partner Grant Williamson said the bellweather stock had come from an oversold position and bargain hunters were flocking in.

"There doesn't seem to be any real solid selling in the stock at the moment so I think the buyers have got the upper hand at this stage," he said.

At 5pm open, the NZSX-50 gross index was up 13.34 points at 3420.90, while the NZSX-All capital index was up 4.15 points at 1003.79.

Elsewhere, the market was reasonably mixed.

Fletcher Building was off 7c at $7.90 -- "under profit-taking pressure" -- Contact Energy was down 7c at 713, and Carter Holt was unchanged at 274 -- just under Graeme Hart's latest takeover offer of 275/share.

"If you take Telecom out of the equation, the next highest volume would be Sky City, which is coming in for some pretty strong demand at the moment," Mr Williamson said.

The casino operator closed up 2c at $5.13, after shifting 5.3 million shares.

"I think it's a continuation of buying since their better than expected financial result, so that's looking very solid at the moment," Mr Williamson said.

Shares in Feltex fell 8 percent today -- closing down 4c at 44 -- after the carpetmaker provided a trading update to the market.

The company said due to uncertainties in the marketplace it could not provide specific guidance about its expected performance for the rest of the financial year.

Mr Williamson said the update suggested margins were getting squeezed due to an increase in competition, "which is probably the last thing this company needs at the moment".

"Things are just continuing to go from bad to worse for Feltex," he added.

Elsewhere, shares in Steel & Tube Holdings Ltd had fallen 9c to $4.10 at close.

The Lower Hutt company announced on Friday it had signed a conditional contract to buy local stainless steel distributor New Zealand Fasteners Stainless Group (NZFSG) for about $11 million.

Of the 153 stocks traded today, there were 58 rises and 50 falls.

Over 43.8 million shares were traded with a value of $165.9 million.

- NZPA