Auckland Airport, Telecom news gives shares a shove

By NZPA

Wednesday 7th November 2007

The sharemarket outpaced offshore rivals today, rising a muscly 1.6% on developments in Telecom and Auckland Airport.

The NZSX-50 benchmark index rose 70.15 points to 4205.5 on a mighty $191 million total turnover.

"It's been a very positive market today and offshore markets are positive as well which has helped to drive sentiment," noted Forsyth Barr broker Suzanne Kinnaird.

Leading the market was Telecom, whose shares surged 3.3% or 14c to $4.34, following a final ruling about the price rivals must pay for "local loop unbundling" -- access to Telecom's wholesale services.

The price was more than $3 higher than in the draft determination which was good news for Telecom, Ms Kinnaird said.

Other drivers were the strong local currency and a fresh bid for Auckland Airport from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).

CPPIB, whose partial takeover bid was rejected by the airport's board last week, went straight to shareholders today with a $3.655 per share offer for 40% of the company.

Auckland Airport's price shot up 30c in response to $3.21, on a significant $63 million turnover.

Infratil -- whose joint stake in the airport with NZ Super Fund, has crept up to just under 8% -- was flat at $3.00, and its chief executive Lloyd Morrison said the offer was too low.

Other stocks having a good day included number two stock Fletcher Building, reversing recent weakness with a 26c gain to $11.72.

Contact Energy, the third biggest stock, rose 21c to $9.20.

Smaller stocks included Freightways up 10c to $3.82, Port of Tauranga up 14c to $7.20, F&P Health up 4c to $3.23, Pumpkin Patch up 5c to $2.92, Sanford up 3c to $4.38, and Sky TV, up 11c to $5.74.

Losers included British-denominated GPG down 3c to $1.82, no doubt due to the currency, export stock Fisher & Paykel Appliances down 6c to $3.37, and Sky City off 3c to $5.47.

Other bourses could not quite match New Zealand's performance. Australia's sharemarket was up 0.9% by mid-afternoon and the Dow Jones rose 0.8% overnight to 13,660.94.

Wall St was boosted by oil prices topping $US97 a barrel, with optimism a day ahead of Cisco Systems Inc earnings and bargain hunting in beaten-down bank stocks.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 1.2%, at 1520.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.07%, at 2825.18.

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