NZ Shares: Telecom edges ahead in flat market

Leading stock Telecom managed to edge ahead in early trade, after reaching an 11-week intraday high yesterday.

In the first few minutes today, Telecom gained 1c to $2.72, having yesterday got as high as $2.73.

This week the telco announced it is to open its new 3G mobile network in mid-May rather than June as previously expected. It also proposed two options to achieve the Government's broadband goals.

The market as a whole was flat, with the benchmark NZX-50 index down 0.52 points to 2685.92, after gaining 22.1 points yesterday.

Helping cheer up investors yesterday was an announcement from unlisted dairy giant Fonterra Co-operative announcing a 10c increase in its forecast payout to $5.20 per kg of milk solids.

Today, among leading shares Fletcher Building was down 8c to $6.30 after a 14c gain yesterday, while Contact Energy gained 7c to $5.62 more than reversing yesterday's 5c fall.

Some of the shares to fall early today included Sky TV, down 5c to $4.03, Port of Tauranga down 3c to $5.47, and Tourism Holdings down 2c to 45c.

Dual-listed bank ANZ lost 98c to $20.42 while Westpac gave up 10c to $25.00.

Early risers included NZX, up 3c to $6.85, Sky City up 2c to $2.77, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare up 2c to $3.03.

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In the United States, stocks edged lower as fresh worries that major banks may need to raise more money offset more reassuring economic data that suggested the worst may be over and a big dividend boost from IBM.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.1 per cent to 8016.95, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 0.3 per cent to 855.16, and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.3 per cent to 1673.81.

- NZPA