MARKET CLOSE: Sharemarket up as Telecom, Fletcher rise

Monday 16th May 2011

The New Zealand sharemarket rose slightly today, as key stock Telecom pushed back to the level of the 14-month high reached last Thursday.

The benchmark NZX-50 index rose 8.08 points, or 0.229 percent, to 3543.866.

Telecom (NZX: TEL ) shares closed up 4c at $2.34.5 and traded as high as $2.35, the level it reached last Thursday.

The company today noted that the finance and expenditure select committee has reported back on the Telecommunications Amendment Bill and supplementary order paper but did not comment further.

The strength in the market came as other equity markets were weak on concerns about European debt and weak commodity prices, and as investors waited for Thursday's New Zealand government Budget and the credit rating agencies reaction to it.

Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ) rose 9c to $9.01 and Skellerup (NZX: SKL ) rose 2c to $1.33.

The Warehouse (NZX: WHS ) added 1c to $3.75, just below the five-month high $3.77 reached on Friday.

Infratil (NZX: IFT ) eased 2c to $1.90 ahead of its result tomorrow and Goodman Property (NZX: GMT ) rose a cent to 96 ahead of its result later this week.

Port of Tauranga (NZX: POT ) rose 8c to $8.89 and Sanford (NZX: SAN ) rose 5c to $5.55. Nuplex (NZX: NPX ) rose 2c to $3.11 and TrustPower (NZX: TPW ) rose 4c to $7.55.

Contact Energy (NZX: CEN ) eased a cent to $5.98 and Vector (NZX: VCT ) eased a cent to $2.51. Mainfreight (NZX: MFT ) eased 10c to $9.35 and Steel & Tube (NZX: STU ) eased 5c to $2.55. OceanaGold (NZX: OGC ) eased 9c to $3.01. Rakon (NZX: RAK ) eased 3c to $1.22. Tower (NZX: TWR ) eased a cent to $1.82 and Air NZ (NZX: AIR ) eased a cent to $1.12.

In the US, stocks ended a second week of losses on a down note, reflecting growing worries that stocks are on the precipice of a pullback.

Concern about slowed growth worldwide, the coming end of a supportive Federal Reserve policy and the fear of a worsening euro-zone debt crisis are undermining the stock market's ability to maintain an upward direction.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.8% at 12,595.75, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index finished down 0.8% at 1337.77, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.2% at 2828.47.

For the week, the Dow was down 0.3%, the S&P 500 was off 0.2% and the Nasdaq was barely up at 0.03%.

NZPA

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