KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket had a reasonable bounce today, although it failed to match the Australian market's 1 per cent gain, despite a rebound for some blue chip stocks.
Both the currency and the sharemarket were relatively unmoved by a worse than anticipated March quarter current account deficit of $2.16
billion. That was well above expectations of a $1.66b deficit.
The benchmark NZSX-50 closed up 10.7 points at 3291.97, on turnover valued at $123.4 million.
"There's certainly some depth to the market, which we hadn't really seen for a few days when it was weaker," said First NZ Capital director Philip Hunter.
"Certainly (there's) a bit of bargain hunting but sentiment does remain fairly fragile, and that will be a feature going forward."
Telecom was up a cent at 363, Contact Energy gained 5c to 850, Fletcher Building was up 8c at 673, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 2c to 231, and F&P Appliances was up 2c at 198.
Auckland Airport was up a cent at 193, casino company Sky City lost 5c to 315, and Sky TV also fell 5c, to 425.
Retailer Briscoe Group slid 10 per cent, or 11c, to 99, after its second profit warning as difficult trading conditions continued. It had earlier hit a record low of 96.
Finance company owner Dorchester Pacific initially dropped 11c to 10c, on news it was seeking a deferred payment plan from debenture holders following a dramatic fall off of its reinvestment rate. Dorchester shares closed down 6c at 15.
The Warehouse was up 1c at 451. An Appeal Court decision on whether Foodstuffs and or Woolworths can launch takeover bids is imminent.
On the downside, Tower fell 5c to 205, Rakon slid 15c to 290, NZ Oil and Gas was down 5c at 169, and Hallenstein Glasson lost 3c to 282.
Pumpkin Patch was up 3c at 153, Infratil rose 5c to 191, Michael Hill was up a cent at 81, and NZ Farming Systems Uruguay was a cent higher at 182.
Among dual-listed stocks, ANZ jumped 125 to 2436, Westpac rose 174 to 2725, Lion Nathan fell 8c to 1048, and AMP rose 60c to 870.
Australia's S&P/ASX-200 Index was up 1.2 per cent at 5303, and Japan's Nikkei share average was down 0.1 per cent.
The lead from Wall Street was mixed. The US market ended an erratic day with a modest gain after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and issued a mixed assessment of the economy.
After a two-day meeting, the Fed decided to keep the benchmark federal funds rate at 2 per cent, as expected.
(Philip Hunter's disclosure statement is available on request)
- NZPA
