Warehouse lifts NZ market

Investors pushed up the price of The Warehouse chain today, apparently buoyed by the implications of "green shoots" in the retail trade, and underpinned a lift in the New Zealand sharemarket.

That "big box" retailer reported a 15.4 per cent fall in full year net profit, but when unusual items were excluded the result was up 5.3 per cent, and announced a special dividend of 10c/share.

This was enough send its shares surging up 24c, or 5.9 per cent, to 428 within 10 minutes of the market opening, and it held onto most of those gains through the day to close up 21c at 425.

Grant Williamson, director at broker Hamilton, Hindin, Greene, said The Warehouse result was being interpreted by investors as showing "the retailers in New Zealand are on the road to recovery".

"The Warehouse was a very reasonable result, and they've thrown in a special dividend as well," he said. "The last time we saw it at these levels was back in June 2008."

Mr Williamson said the overall market was also helped by good news in overseas m arkets.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index gained 10.3 points yesterday and after rising 12.5 points in early trade today, closed at 3137.18 -- up another 10.49 points. The volume of 23.7 million shares was valued at $78.96 million.

Mr Williamson said some of the better gains were among the more solid second-line stocks, such as Mainfreight, up 18c to 513, Steel and Tube, up 11c to 355, Sky TV up 10c to 328, and Ryman Healthcare "up nice" by 5c to 188.

"Investors may be switching their focus a little bit from the blue-chip stock and looking to the tier just underneath," he said.

NZX was up 5c to 785, Freightways was up 1c to 318, leading stock Telecom was steady on 272, and Fisher & Paykel Appliances was up 3c to 78.

NZ Refining shares were down 5c to 490, Goodman Fielder fell 5c to 200, and APN fell 6c to 244.

Australian shares rose 0.55 per cent to an 11 month closing high, apparently on the back of positive data from China.

The benchmark ASX 200 index rose 25.3 points to 4596.1 - its highest close since early October last year.

In the United States, stocks gained for a fifth straight session, the longest string of gains since November, as a bright outlook from consumer product company Procter & Gamble and a successful Treasury bond auction boosted investors' confidence.

Strong demand for the sale of 30-year Treasury bonds lifted confidence in US assets, including stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.8 per cent at 9627.48, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1 per cent at 1044.14, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.2 per cent at 2084.02.

- NZPA