KEY POINTS:
Two stocks inextricably linked to oil prices went in separate directions today on a broadly positive sharemarket.
While Air NZ touched a fresh year low due to high jet fuel prices, NZ Oil and Gas - a key shareholder in the Tui oil field - hit a year
high.
Air NZ closed down 2c to 118 after briefly touching 113, far from its year high of 313 in June last year.
But as oil neared US$120 a barrel, NZOG closed up 2c at 160, after touching 164 earlier.
One of NZOG's other interests, Pike River Coal, rose 6c to 143 on high hard coking prices, and NZ Refining jumped 26c to 809.
Brokers said the market was playing catch-up after losing a day's trading on Anzac Day.
The NZX-50 benchmark index rose 25.82 points or 0.7 per cent to 3642.63 on moderate volume worth $93 million.
The Warehouse also performed strongly, up 30c to 600 as the Commerce Commission returned to court to appeal a High Court decision which cleared Woolworths and Foodstuffs to court the retailer.
"We saw this last time in the lead-up to the announcement that a few people jumped on board in case the outcome's a good one and that will lead to the potential for a bit of a takeover battle over the Warehouse," James Smalley, a client adviser with Hamilton, Hindin, Greene, said.
Earlier today a media report said Woolworths was still keen to buy the Warehouse, despite its worsening financial position.
Large cap stocks also pushed higher today, with Fletcher Building up 13c to 890 and electricity company Contact up 11c to 941. Contact had had a strong run and was edging towards its year high of 970 in July, Mr Smalley said.
" Now that conditions have become more settled over world sharemarkets, value starts to reassert itself. They've bounced back very, very well from the lows that they had only two or three months ago."
Telecom rose 5c to 383 on moderate volume.
Vector lost a cent to 210 after the company chose Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings (CKI) to buy its Wellington electricity network for $785m.
"Obviously...it derisked the company somewhat in that they're going to be using those funds to pay down debt, but it looks like the market had fully factored in that announcment," Mr Smalley said.
"And they've still got to run the gauntlet of the Overseas Investment [Office], which is not always a given."
Other moves included Mainfreight up 20c to 700, NZX up 19c to 841, PGG Wrightson up 7c to 215, and Sky TV down 7c to 453.
In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P rose on Friday (local time), after signs that American Express Co was holding its own amid the economic slowdown, but Microsoft Corp's weak profit forecast pulled down the Nasdaq.
The Dow rose 42.91 points, or 0.33 per cent, to end at 12,891.86. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.65 per cent, to 1397.84. But the Nasdaq fell 0.25 per cent to 2422.93.
- NZPA
