NZ stocks: Dual listed stocks outperform rest of sharemarket

A buoyant Australian sharemarket helped push up dual-listed New Zealand stocks, in an otherwise quiet day on the sharemarket.

In a typically muted Monday, the benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was down 2.09 points at 2638.10, while the NZSX-All capital index was down 0.82 points at 884.99.

Of the 158 stocks on the move today there were 57 rises and 35 falls, with total turnover worth $74.3 million.

Bellwether stock Telecom was unchanged at 568c.

But ASB Securities' Stephen Wright said that at 5pm NZT the Australian market was up 25 points, which had helped push up dual-listed stocks on the NZX.

Promina was up 7c at 442c, AMP was up 8c at 653c, Westpac rose 16c to 1816c, Telstra was up 22c at 548c, while ANZ Banking rose 20c to 2030c.

APN Media closed at 465c, down from a high of 469c reached earlier in its first day of trading on the New Zealand exchange. The company, which owns the New Zealand Herald, nine regional daily newspapers, other publications and radio stations, was already listed on the Australian stock exchange.

"Really its price just reflects the Australian price," Mr Wright said.

Meanwhile, another dramatic day saw Wrightson down 3c at 154c today.

The company has asked the Securities Commission to investigate alleged irregularities in trading of its shares on Friday.

This morning Rural Portfolio Investments (RPI), said it had control of 33.785 per cent of Wrightson, not including the 7.9 per cent held by Marathon Asset Management. RPI said Marathon had confirmed it had sold its stake to RPI, but because the transaction had to go through a number of intermediaries, it had not yet been registered.

RPI's takeover offer to gain a 50.01 per cent stake in Wrightson closes on Wednesday.

Last Friday, Wrightson announced a merger proposal of its rural supplies business with Fonterra's RD1, which owns 19.6 per cent of Wrightson.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 7c to 1315c after today announcing it was expanding its presence in Japan to tap into the country's growing market for sleep disorder products.

"Initially that was a bit firmer but then that just drifted off in line with the drifting market," Mr Wright said.

Carter Holt Harvey was unchanged at 197c, after an announcement late this afternoon it was buying a Chinese panel business for US$134 million ($216.4 million).

Other stocks on the move today included Ryman Healthcare up 7c at 272, TrustPower up 12c at 447, The Warehouse down 4c at 426, Contact Energy down 2c at 584, Independent Newspapers Ltd down 10c at 470, NZX down 9c at 841 and Turners Auctions up 7c at 515.


- NZPA