KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand sharemarket was a tad firmer but volumes were quiet as the nation mourned its ejection from the Rugby World Cup.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 11.19 points or 0.2 per cent to 4295.24 on turnover worth $104 million.
Trading was led by Telecom which
rose 4c to 460 as shareholders reinvested some of the $1.1 billion returned to them in a one-in-nine share cancellation on Friday.
Record highs for US equity indexes on Friday night were not reflected in the local market, Hamilton, Hindin Greene partner Grant Williamson said.
"It's quite quiet trading here today as I think people are still recovering from the shock loss at the weekend," he said.
Most of the volume was being seen in in-play stocks Auckland Airport and Sky City. Auckland Airport closed flat at 309 on trading worth $12.6 million, while Sky City fell 7c to 532 on $7.5 million worth of shares.
Abano Healthcare, "one of the best performing stocks of the last year," jumped 32c or 8 per cent to 432, after an upgraded earnings forecast.
It also said it had received approaches from parties other than Masthead, a 19.9 per cent shareholder seeking 51 per cent. Masthead indicated it would not be raising its proposed offer of $3.85 per share.
Other movers included Fisher & Paykel Appliances up 7c to 362, F&P Healthcare down 2c to 332, Contact down 7c to 928, Fletcher Building up 10c to 1230 and Nuplex, down 9c to 749 after paying out a 20.5c dividend today.
Cavotec MSL, formerly Mooring Systems, rose 10c to 510 after announcing a deal with a division of US energy company Chevron to work on a range of ship and shore-based mooring initiatives.
NZOG gained a cent to 101 as the company issued profile-raising information. Mr Williamson said NZOG was trying to move from being a small exploring company to a mid-sized Australasian producer and explorer.
Offshore, the Australian sharemarket touched a new lifetime high, with US-focused firms such as James Hardie Industries gaining after solid US jobs data boosted optimism about the US economy.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index rose as much as 1.2 per cent to an all-time high of 6684.4, but had eased to 6667.0 by 4.14pm NZT.
It is a public holiday in the US tonight but on Friday, all time highs were hit after a solid employment report showed the US economy added more jobs in September than economists had expected.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 0.66 per cent, to end at 14,066.01, off a record intraday high of 14,124.54.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index jumped 0.96 per cent, to 1557.59 - a record close.
The Nasdaq Composite Index finished up 1.71 per cent, at 2780.32, at one point hitting its highest level since January 2001.
- NZPA
