Wrightson pushes NZ market higher

The sharemarket ended a busy day higher with plenty of corporate activity for investors to digest and the prospect of an initial public offering on the horizon.

Shares in rural services firm PGG Wrightson rose as high as 90c but eased back to close at 78c, up 20 per cent, after the company said it would raise $36 million through an issue of new shares to China-based Agria Corporation.

Silver Fern Farms sold 10 million PGG Wrightson shares on market today.

Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene, said the purchase by Agria was conditional.

"Shareholders will be pretty cautious until they find out about the capital raising and the size of it. Pyne Gould Corp and Nuplex have given us the experience that share prices come down pretty quickly if it is a very big rights issue," he said.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 15.914 points, or 0.499 per cent, at 3207.204. Turnover was worth $98.4 million. There were 44 rises and 33 falls among the 109 stocks traded.

In Australia today it was reported that the anticipated float of retailer Kathmandu could be announced as early as next week.

Restaurant Brands rose 9c to 142 after reporting an 89 per cent rise in half-year net profit, excluding non-trading items, to $9.2m.

This was the stock's highest level since 2005.

Air New Zealand announced a new domestic fare structure designed to increase demand today. Its shares were up 1c at 133 ahead of the announcement.

Mr Williamson said the market was firm overall in reaction to a firmer Wall Street with the Dow remaining above the 10,000 level.

The leaders helped the local index higher with Fletcher Building up 28c to 817 and Contact Energy up 15c to 620.

SkyCity rose 3c to 339. NZX rose 4c to 810, Hallenstein Glasson rose 10c to 310, Cavalier rose 4c to 250 and SkyTV rose 7c to 495.

Telecom fell 2c to 255, Freightways fell 2c to 311 and Fisher and Paykel Appliances fell 1c to 66. Sanford fell 10c to 480 and Methven fell 2c to 171. The Warehouse fell 4c to 439.

In the United States, the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 climbed to 2009 closing highs, buoyed by energy stocks as oil prices jumped, but financials retreated as investors panned results from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

While Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup Inc's results exceeded forecasts, they failed to meet the lofty standard set the previous day by JPMorgan Chase & Co, the first major bank to report earnings.

"It appears the market is reacting to the energy inventory data, the strength in crude and the idea that the economic recovery is firming," said Nick Kalivas, vice president of financial research and senior equity index analyst at MF Global in Chicago.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.5 per cent to close at 10,062.94, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.4 per cent to finish at 1096.56, while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.1 per cent to end at 2173.29.

After US markets closed, tech stalwarts Google Inc and IBM reported earnings that exceeded already high expectations, showing demand from both consumers and businesses was returning.

- NZPA