NZ stocks: Big sales lift index on quiet day

Several large parcels of Telecom and Lion Nathan shares accounted for a large part of an otherwise flat day's trading on the sharemarket yesterday.

Market heavyweight Telecom rose 3c to $5.15, topping the turnover with $26.9 million in shares changing hands.

Lion Nathan ended steady at $5.65 after a positive AGM on Tuesday during which the company said it expected to post a 10 to 15 per cent increase in net profit next year.



More than $11.3 million of shares changed hands, on both sides of the Tasman.

"There's just been general allocation towards New Zealand for a little while now," said Nigel Scott, institutional dealer for ABN Amro Craigs Equities.

This helped lead the NZSE-40 capital index up 2.99 points to 2074.26. Total turnover for the day was $88.4 million.

A standout performer was Fisher & Paykel Appliances which rose 40c to $10.20 as it neared values closer to analysts' estimates. Its healthcare sister company also rose, 25c to $16.95.

Wrightson climbed 7c to $1.21 after the company said it was expecting a significantly better half year profit to the end of December.

Other rises included The Warehouse, up 4c to $6.74, and Horizon up 20c to $13.50.

Fletcher Forests preference shares ended steady at 24c after heavy selling in the morning. The ordinary shares were up 1c at 25c. The company announced that it had submitted a proposal to investment bankers Morgan Stanley, who are selling the collapsed Central North Island forestry partnership.

Tranz Rail slid 7c to $4.08. The company announced it had given around $350 million in engineering and maintenance contracts to Transfield Services and Alstom NZ.

Port of Lyttelton also had a busy day, falling 2c to $1.67, after a crossing of 1.6 million shares.

Other falls included Telstra, down 14c to $6.46, Auckland Airport, down 1c to $3.93, Carter Holt Harvey, down 1c to $1.78, Contact Energy, down 2c to $4.02, and DB Group, down 8c to $5.52.

Falls outnumbered the rises 56 to 42 among 144 stocks traded.

The New Zealand dollar spent the day settling into rediscovered territory above 42USc.

The kiwi spent most of the day between 42.00USc, where it closed, and 42.10USc, compared to Wednesday's close of 41.99USc.

At 5 pm, the Australian dollar was at 52.03USc, up from Wednesday's 51.86USc close.

"It was a day of consolidation after yesterday's big up move," one local dealer said.

"The kiwi is hanging in there quite nicely and looking relatively strong. But it is still a little bit susceptible to a move lower if something else impacts on it, like the Australian dollar."

The kiwi did not failed to react to two minor pieces of data out yesterday, which showed that food prices rose 0.1 per cent last month and manufacturing sales fell 2.4 per cent during the September quarter.

Meanwhile, the American dollar edged lower in foreign trading after the 11th US rate cut this year, failed to impress Wall Street and highlighted the possibility that recovery may not be just round the corner.

On the crosses at 5 pm, the kiwi was trading at 80.74Ac (80.93Ac at Wednesday's close), 52.92 yen (52.83), 29.02 pence (29.11), 0.9140 marks (0.9151), 0.6891 Swiss francs (0.6913) and 46.73 euros (46.80).

The Australian dollar was buying $1.2387 from $1.2356.

The trade-weighted index was at 50.14 (50.16), the 90-day bank bills were unchanged at 4.86 per cent and the monetary conditions index was at minus 863 (minus 861).

On the debt market, the March 2002 bonds were at 4.74 per cent (4.75 per cent), the April 2004s were at 5.53 per cent (5.57), the November 2006s were at 6.17 per cent (6.21) and the November 2011s were at 6.62 per cent (6.63).

- NZPA