KEY POINTS:
Air New Zealand rose 2c on the NZX today, to a share price of 200c, despite disclosing late in the day that it is one of 25 airlines being probed by the European Union after an investigation into alleged price fixing of air cargo rates and surcharges.
The carrier said it had received a statement of objections, which set out issues to which the airlines were required to respond to by March 3.
The national carrier, which is almost 80 per cent government-owned, has declined comment on the EU's "statement of of objection".
A total of 759,425 AirNZ shares were traded today, the first day of share market operation after the Christmas break, opening at 198c, and dropping to a low of 195c during the day.
Overall, there were 41 rises and 32 fall in the stocks traded, and the benchmark NZX 50 index rose 0.24 per cent to 4068.63 points. Shortly after opening, the NZSX-50 was down 0.8 points at 4057.9, holding on to Monday's 65-point gain.
The NZX named today as one of the 10 "worst-performing" of the world's stock exchanges, when ranked by total return on the benchmark index by Lipper, a fund research unit of Reuters Group Plc.
The Telegraph newspaper in London reported the NZX was eighth-worst performing stock market - with a total return of minus-1 per cent for the year - on Lipper's "best" and "worst" performance lists. Worst was Venezuela, at minus-29 per cent.
Activity is expected to be subdued over the Christmas/New Year period with only six trading days, and many market participants on holiday.
Today, a total of 11,533,502 shares were traded, valued at $35,914,605.
Telecom provided the top turnover by volume and value, 2.19 million shares valued at $9.7 million, and finished up 4c at 445c, after opening a cent down on Boxing Day's finish, at 440.
Contact Energy rose 5c to 845, and Fletcher Building - the second highest stock traded in terms of value - gained 13c to 1133.
F&P Healthcare, ranked highly by brokers for the coming year, was the second biggest share traded in value terms, with $631,640 worth changing hands, but finishing on 348c - the same as Monday. F&P Appliances fell 4c to 346.
Auckland Airport finished 1c lower at 295, after gaining 16c on Monday.
In early trading, Freightways was down 4c at 365 but finished up 1c at 370. Mainfreight traded relatively heavily in the thin markets,with 229,000 shares changing hands as its price rose 3c to 657.
Infratil fell 1c to 291, and Rakon jumped 4c to 390.
Seafood exporter Sanford rose 3c to 410.
- NZPA
