The New Zealand sharemarket gained today after Wall Street rose, even though Telecom eased a cent to $2.30 after reporting its earnings.The December quarter profit of $80 million was near analysts' forecasts of $77 million. The company stuck to its annual
The New Zealand sharemarket gained today after Wall Street rose, even though Telecom eased a cent to $2.30 after reporting its earnings.
The December quarter profit of $80 million was near analysts' forecasts of $77 million. The company stuck to its annual profit forecast but indicated the lower end of the range, reflecting outages in its XT network and economic conditions.
"It's not a glorious sort of result but it's not beyond expectations," said Australian telecommunications analyst Paul Budde.
Brokers have reflected this week that Telecom's share price is pretty much where it was a year ago and regulatory risk, competition and capital expenditure are issues.
With economic data, including retail sales figures today, pointing to a grind out of recession for the New Zealand economy, in contrast to a strong Australian economy, there was no reason to expect big changes in prices of leading stocks.
The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 15.2 points, or 0.4%, at 3080.473 and was flat over the week.
There were 42 rises and 36 falls among the 116 stocks traded. Turnover was $77.85 million.
Large crossings in stocks this week, particularly a large trade in Fletcher Building, have brokers speculating that a large fund manager may be adjusting its portfolio.
Fletcher Building, the market's top stock, rose 9c to $7.54 today.
"Investors are being very patient at the moment. There's been a lot of jawboning around the world by politicians and they are waiting to see developments," said John Cairns, senior investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.
He said many investors had not been back from the summer break for long and the next few weeks are full of results by New Zealand companies.
SkyCity rose 3c to $3.13, Pike River Coal rose 3c to 92c, and APN News rose 8c to $2.97 on light volume.
Steel & Tube continued to retreat after yesterday reporting an 85% fall in interim profit and signalling only a slow improvement in its outlook statement. Its shares lost 9c to $2.60, on top of yesterday's 7c drop although volumes were low.
TrustPower fell 1c to $7.34, Mainfreight rose 1c to $5.87 and Auckland Airport was unchanged at $1.86.
Freightways, which reports on Monday, fell 1c to $3.21.
AMP fell 15c to $7.80, and ANZ was down 27c to $26.00. NZ Refining rose 2c to $3.57, Property for Industry rose 1c to $1.15 and Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose 1c to 63c. Hellaby fell 15c to $1.45.
