F&P Healthcare and Sky TV lead sharemarket higher

F&P Healthcare led the market higher, adding 2.2 per cent to $10.61. Photo / Dean Purcell

New Zealand shares rose today, led by Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Sky Network Television, while Ebos and Metro Performance Glass fell.

The S&P/NZSX 50 Index added 7.1 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 7441.57. Within the index, 20 stocks gained, 22 fell and eight were unchanged. Turnover was $134 million.

Other Asian markets did not fare as well. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 and Japan's Topix were down after oil prices tumbled 5 per cent when an agreement by Opec to extend existing supply curbs disappointed investors wagering on larger cuts. On the NZX 50, New Zealand Oil & Gas was unchanged at 64c.

F&P Healthcare led the market higher, adding 2.2 per cent to $10.61. Early this week the medical device maker posted an 18 per cent gain in full-year profit.

"Investors have started to look for a few of the good growth stories" in the New Zealand market, said Hamilton Hindin Greene broker Grant Williamson.

Sky TV added 1.2 per cent to $3.53. Sky TV and Vodafone New Zealand this week detailed their appeal against the Commerce Commission's decision blocking their merger, arguing the regulator was mistaken to find the combined group would substantially lessen competition, and the ruling should be reversed.

In another merger case, NZME and Fairfax New Zealand today said they will file papers in the High Court claiming the regulator was wrong in fact and in law in rejecting their planned merger. NZME shares rose 2.6 per cent to 80c after the news.

Small cap Future Mobility Systems added 9.1 per cent to 18c after it posted a 24 per cent gain in annual profit and said plans to seek a listing on an overseas market are now well advanced. Future Mobility is the renamed amphibious boat maker Sealegs.

Ebos shed 1.8 per cent to $17.65 on profit taking after it gained ground on news it entered an agreement to acquire HPS, Australia's largest provider of outsourced pharmacy services to hospitals, for A$154m.

Metro Performance Glass shed 1.4 per cent to $1.39. Yesterday, it delivered a $19.4m net profit for the year to March 31, down from $21.3m a year earlier.

Trilogy International fell 1.3 per cent to $2.27. The company posted a 19 per cent gain in annual pretax earnings, meeting guidance.

AWF Madison fell 0.3 per cent to $2.92 despite a 13 per cent increase in annual profit in an increasingly tight labour market.