NZ stocks: F&P leads market rise

Investors waited a long time for news from Fisher & Paykel Appliances and today rewarded it for delivering the goods.

Appliances' shares rose 37c, or 56.06 per cent, to 103 and brokers said the huge volume traded indicated institutions were among the buyers.

Appliances said Chinese company Haier is to become its 20 per cent shareholder and it will raise $143 million from an underwritten one-for-one rights issue at 41c a share. That is a discount to the 66c share price before trading was halted ahead of the announcement.

"Our view was that if they could pull off the deal with Haier and the other bits and pieces that they have disclosed as well as a meaningful, although diminished capital raising, that the stock was probably worth a dollar," said Peter Sigley, dealer at Goldman Sachs JBWere.

"The stock has gravitated straight there and done it on reasonable volume," he said.

Overall, the benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 35.708 points, or 1.306 per cent, at 2769.783. Turnover was worth $103 million, of which $24.5m was transacted in Appliances' shares.

There were 55 rises and 31 falls among the 123 stocks traded.

Fletcher Building rose 7c to 640, which Mr Sigley attributed to positive sentiment toward cyclical stocks.

Telecom rose 3c to 261 and Contact rose 15c to 585.

Methven rose 7c to 135 after reporting a 3.1 per cent rise in net profit to $10.1m.

Sanford was unchanged at 580 and today announced a mixed interim result.

Rakon fell 4c to 146 after announcing a 59 per cent fall in full year net profit to $4.5m as global economic troubles hit sales.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 2c to 285, having fallen 20c yesterday after its profit announcement, and $7.9m worth of shares traded today.

Freightways was unchanged at 300 after announcing the sale of a Wellington property.

Hellaby rose 1c to 68, Infratil rose 2c to 165 and Nuplex rose 1c to 45. Air NZ fell 2c to 106 and Auckland Airport rose 1c to 162.

Port of Tauranga rose 10c to 610.

TrustPower rose 10c to 795. Tower rose 1c to 161 and The Warehouse rose 5c to 370.

Today's strong performance came after stocks in the United States climbed more than 2 per cent as data showing the biggest monthly jump in consumer confidence in six years lifted hopes of an economic rebound, along with a brokerage upgrade of Apple Inc.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 196.17 points, or 2.37 per cent, to finish at 8473.49. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 23.33 points, or 2.63 per cent, at 910.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 58.42 points, or 3.45 per cent, at 1750.43.

- NZPA