NZ Stocks: Sky City, Montana lift index

Better-than-expected interim results from Sky City and Montana helped lift a weak sharemarket to break-even by the close yesterday.

"It was a good performance relative to global markets," JB Were's Murray Rutherford said.

The market started the week on the back foot following continued uncertainty in United States markets.

Wall Street on Friday had a rough day, with the technology-packed Nasdaq index down 127 points, or 5 per cent, at 2426, while the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average dropped 92 points, 0.83 per cent, to 10,799.

Here, the NZSE-40 index closed 0.08 points higher at 1966.41 on volume of $44.3 million after being in negative territory most of the session.

Telecom bucked the global sell-off in telcos although it began the day very weak, trading under $5 for the first time in over a month.

In a blow for Telecom's expansionist plans into Australia, Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has confirmed it will bid for Australia's second largest telecom operator Cable and Wireless Optus.

Armed with a war chest of $S6 billion ($8.2 billion) in cash and short-term securities, SingTel is more than capable of outbidding Telecom NZ, analysts said.

But sellers were unwilling to part with stock and Telecom ended up 5c at $5.18. Talk of Telecom's abortive bid for 10 per cent of Sky TV on Thursday night had dried up.

Fletcher Energy skidded 22c to $8.76 on the back of a fall in its US associate Capstone Turbines.

Expectations for Sky City's result were high but it more than delivered with a half-year profit of $33.2 million and comments that the strong performance was sustainable. Sky shares, up from $6 in May, spurted another 13c ahead from Friday to $9.13.

Similarly with Montana, now delivered into the hands of Lion Nathan. It reported a $19.5 million half-year profit, ahead of most forecasts. That pushed the shares up 6c to $4.01, now only 64c below what Lion paid institutions for its stake. Lion fell 11c to $4.69.

Cavalier Corp fell 5c to $4.75 after reporting a fall in its half-year profit to $4.6 million from $6.7 million.

Air New Zealand, expected to report a half-year result of barely break-even today, saw its A shares steady at $1.61 and the Bs down 6c at $2.04.

Fisher & Paykel, headed by Gary Paykel, said it was on track for its split in June into healthcare and appliance companies. It closed up 7c at $8.25.

Steel & Tube rose 8c to $1.61 after Fletcher Building on Friday sought Commerce Commission clearance to buy it. Building closed up 5c at $2.27.

Genesis fell 20c to $6.20, continuing its fall since its run up to getting initial US approval on its Pvac drug.

NZ Refining rose 24c to $15.79 while Vending Technologies rose 6c to $2.86.

Shares in Australian property developer Westfield fell 35c to $3.85 on news that its giant Newmarket mall is in doubt after Auckland City planners came out against a key $450 million five-storey retail flyover.

Falls outnumbered rises 55 to 32.

- NZPA