Telecom shines again in strong early NZ sharemarket

NZPA

Wednesday 25th May 2011

Telecom shares powered further ahead to a new 16-month high, continuing to benefit from yesterday's announcement it had snared nearly 70% of the Government's ultrafast broadband initiative.

After lifting 15c yesterday, Telecom's share price was up a further 7.5c in early trading today to $2.51.

It was the standout in a broad based early rise in the market, with the benchmark NZX-50 index gaining 21.18 points to 3580.73 around 10.20am, its highest level in nearly three years. Yesterday the index ended up 5.4 points.

Restaurant Brands(NZX: RBD ) was up 5c to $2.65 early today, Fletcher Building(NZX: FBU ) gained 4c to $9.05, Sky TV (NZX: SKT ) added 3c to $5.70, Nuplex (NZX: NXP ) was up 3c to $3.13, Sky City(NZX: SKC ) lifted 2c to $3.77, Infratil(NZX: IFT ) gained 2c to $1.92, and Hallenstein Glasson(NZX: HLG ) added 2c to $4.19.

Among the few shares falling early, Trustpower(NZX: TPW ) lost 20c to $7.39 on low volume, NZX(NZX: NZX ) dropped 3c to $2.44, and Port of Tauranga(NZX: POT ) was down 2c to $8.94, while Contact Energy(NZX: CEN ) was unchanged on $5.96.

Trustpower was ex a 20c dividend, and NZX was ex a 2.75c dividend.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (NZX: FPH ) slipped 1c to $3.10 after reporting an 11% fall in full year net profit to $63.9 million, excluding deferred tax charges, as the company was hit by the strength of the NZ dollar against the greenback.

In the United States, stocks dipped in light volume as lingering concerns about a slowdown in growth more than offset gains in energy shares.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.2 percent to 12,356.21, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 0.1% to 1316.28, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.5% to 2746.16.

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