Craigs Investment Partners broker Chris Timms said there were all sizes of trades put through on Telecom and Chorus.
By 4pm, $5.5 million of Chorus shares had changed hands and $5.7 million of Telecom shares had been traded. That accounted for 50% of the dollar value of shares traded yesterday on the NZX.
The shares last traded at $3.05 for Chorus and $2.05 for Telecom.
Craigs had recently upgraded Chorus shares from a hold to a buy with about 200 million shares having traded since it was listed on the NZX on November 23.
At face value, that represented more than half of the Chorus shares on offer, he said.
"We expect selling pressure to ease as postdemerger MSCI and ASX indices reweightings largely end by the end of the year. The extraordinary volume of late has created an opportunity to acquire Chorus on an 8.4% one-year forward net yield."
Craigs expected Chorus to deliver stable infrastructure-like cash flows and modest dividend growth. The company was also expected to deliver modest revenue and margin growth in the future.
There was a risk around the fixed-to-mobile substitutions for Chorus but Mr Timms expected it to remain a niche area and confined to the youth market in a New Zealand context.
Australian stocks did not follow the lead from the United States in light holiday trading.
Australian stocks fell to almost their lowest point in a week in light volumes after disappointing economic data from Japan.
Japan's household spending fell 3.2% in November compared with a year ago, while industrial output slumped thanks to a fall in production, shipments and inventories, data released yesterday showed.
The news wiped out last week's small Christmas rally on the local market, with shares down by more than 1%.
US stocks finished marginally higher after data showed consumer confidence hit an eight-month high in the world's largest economy, 70% of which was driven by consumer demand.
"US markets are starting to decouple from the rest of the world," Mr Timms said.
"We've got a slight positive lead from Wall Street but I imagine volumes are going to be even worse than in the lead-up to Christmas."
Retail stocks were in particular focus as dealers tried to assess how much shoppers spent during the Christmas sales period in the first day of trading after the four-day Christmas break.
Mr Timms said he expected investors would remain wary of the sector after a spate of profit warnings from Australian retailers such as JB Hi-Fi, Billabong and Kathmandu earlier this month.
"Most investors are going to want to wait for more data to come through on the Christmas trade before they buy into the retailers," he said.
