NZ stocks: GPG takes another bite of Tower

Guiness Peat Group took a sizeable bite of financial services firm Tower today, adding to a broadly positive day on the sharemarket.

The NZSE-40 Capital Index closed up 5.34 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 1971.95 on turnover worth $67.5 million.

GPG revealed its hand after the market closed, disclosing it now controlled 9.93 per cent of Tower. GPG director Tony Gibbs declined to make further comment.

GPG bought a 5 per cent stake of 8.8 million shares at $2.085, pushing Tower's share price up 4c to 208 and topping the turnover table on $18.8 million worth of shares. GPG shares were down a cent to 149.

Under securities laws, shareholders are required to disclose their shareholding once it reaches 5 per cent.

Meanwhile, discount retailer Briscoe gave fellow retail stocks a shot in the arm as investors took heart from its solid fourth quarter sales.

Briscoe reported an 18 per cent increase in Q4 sales, helping to lift its shares 5c to 275.

Briscoe's result, boosted by solid Christmas trading, was "in line with our expectations," said Alan Wills, a broker with Forsyth Barr Frater Williams.

"The company also made a comment that their gross margins seem to be good. We won't get further information until their (full year) result in mid-March but certainly... we'd be expecting a very good result from Briscoes... so that augers well for all the retailers, really."

The group said it was on track to post a "satisfactory increase in profits for the full year".

That was good news for other retailers such as The Warehouse, which is due to report its Christmas sales on Wednesday. It rose 2c to 708 while Pacific Retail rose 10c to 260 and Hallenstein Glasson rose 3c to 287.

Warming up for its second quarter results announcement tomorrow was market leader Telecom, which dropped 6c on Friday but rebounded 4c today to 445.

Brokers said they would be looking for guidance on the performance of Telecom's Australian operations.

Profit taking hit Sky City Entertainment, falling 3c to 863 after a strong run in January. Fletcher Building, which proved a star on Friday on healthy housing data, initially rose to a new high of 355 but closed down 1c at 353.

Lyttelton Port Company retraced losses in early trading to close 5c up to 164. On Friday it forecast a 3 per cent fall in volumes through its container terminal for the year ended June.

Other moves included Tranz Rail, up 3c to 139, Trustpower up 5c to 390, Westpac NZ up 10c to 1434, and Michael Hill, which bounced back 20c to 600 after being sold off from a new high of $6.45 two weeks ago.

Battered AMP ended down 4c to 1001 on a volatile session which saw the stock trading up 75c to 1081 and as low as 991.

Energy companies were in the spotlight following uncertainty about the likely success of the Pohokura gas field. NGC Holdings fell 3c to 162 on solid turnover worth $1.8 million and Contact Energy, which closed on a record 425 on Friday, fell back 5c to 420.

Dental software company Software of Excellence, beaten back 24 per cent on Friday after it warned of a full year loss of up to $2.5 million, recovered 12c to 99c today.

It has slumped from $3.40 just over a year ago when it was considered a market darling. The company largely blames accounting changes for the expected loss.

Richmond fell 1c to 298 despite bidder PPCS being cleared in the weekend by the Takeovers Panel to continue with its hostile takeover offer of Richmond.

Rises outnumbered falls 60 to 36 on 131 stocks traded.

On Wall St blue chips led the broad market upwards, aided by good results from Walt Disney and inspiring investors to look for bargins.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial average rose 108.68 points, or 1.37 per cent, to 8053.81. The broad Standard & Poor's 500 index added 11.09 points, or 1.31 per cent, at 855.70. The tech-loaded Nasdaq Composite, however, fell 1.43 points, or 0.11 per cent, at 1320.92.

For January, Nasdaq eased 1.1 per cent, the Dow dropped 3.5 per cent and the S&P was off 2.7 per cent. The gauges logged their third straight losing week and second straight down month.

- NZPA