KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket eased in directionless early business today.
There was no lead from Wall Street which was closed for the Independence Day holiday.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was down 5.89 points to 4234.40 at 10.20am. Turnover was light at 5.4m shares valued at just $22.3 million, with falls outnumbering rises 23 to 11 on 70 stocks traded.
Bathrooms products company Methven suspended trading in its shares and then announced the purchase of British tap and showerware supplier Deva Tap for $59 million.
The acquisition would be funded through a combination of a $15m institutional placement, $12.8m rights issue, $2.4m in shares to key senior management of Deva and up to $30m of long term debt, including existing Deva borrowings. Methven shares last traded at 230. They will resume trading on Monday.
Market leader Telecom was up 1c to 463. The Government said today it would complete its statutory requirements for the structural separation of Telecom by the end of 2007 and would hold talks with Telecom on the company's proposal to sell off its network assets. It said if no conclusion was reached within two months, its original plan would be implemented.
Main movers in the top 50 were: Contact Energy, down 4c to 907, Nuplex, down 5c to 700, Mainfreight, down 4c to 734, and Sanford, down 5c to 416.
Tourism Holdings was up 3c to 255. MFS Leisure repeated it would not increase its 280/share offer or extend its offer deadline beyond July 21.
ANZ Bank fell 31 to 3153 while Westpac fell 12 to 2830.
Forestry entrepreneur Rubicon was down 5c to 105. Rubicon announced yesterday that ArborGen LLC -- a leading tree genetics researcher in which Rubicon has a one-third stake -- is participating in the search for genetic secrets of the native Australian trees, valued for producing paper for computers and fax machines.
* There was no activity on Wall St today, as it is a national holiday (July 4, Independence Day) in the US.
- NZPA