NZ stocks: Market subdued, Sky result only highlight

12.00pm

The New Zealand sharemarket was flat this morning, with a bounce by Sky City to an all-time high following its annual result the only highlight.

The benchmark NZSE-40 index was 0.64 points higher at 2050.12 at 11.30am on thin turnover worth just $14 million.

Shares in casino operator Sky City jumped 10c to a fresh high of 670 after beating analysts' expectations with a $57 million net after tax profit for the year to June 30. The company will pay a dividend of 22.5 cents per share.

"Everyone is pretty positive about Sky City at the moment," ASB Securities dealer Andrew Kelleher said.

"It has such a dominant market position and there is still potential for growth. It is paying a good dividend for a market leader and the story is reasonably positive."

The result was lower than the $68 million profit recorded for the same period a year earlier, but included a $27.9 million write-down of its cinema subsidiary Force Corp.

Outside of Sky City, market activity was fairly subdued.

Top stock Telecom was flat at 494 on turnover of 950,000 shares worth just under $5 million.

Carter Holt Harvey was steady at 174, Fisher and Paykel Appliances jumped 15c to 1015, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare slipped a cent to 974, Guinness Peat Group was a cent higher at 174 after announcing yesterday its two investments Turners and Growers and Enza will merge and list on the exchange, Tranz Rail eased 3c to 200 and The Warehouse was up 6c at 725.

Air New Zealand slipped a cent to 63c ahead of its annual result tomorrow. The airline is expected to see a second half trading profit turned into a bottom line loss as it continues to pay for its failed investment in Ansett Australia.

WestpacTrust was 5c lower at 1740 after its Australian parent Westpac Banking Corporation said yesterday it was buying most of the BT Financial Group for A$900 million (NZ$1.05 billion).

Rises outnumbered falls by 31 to 29 among the 103 stocks traded so far.

In the United States, stocks rose on Monday in one of the lightest trading days of the year. Trading volume was extremely thin, with many investment houses lightly staffed in the normally quiet summer period, which made for a volatile session.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average rose 46.05 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 8919.01, according to the latest available data, after falling more than 1 per cent earlier in the session.

The broader Standard & Poor's rose 7.09 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 947.95, and the tech-laced Nasdaq Composite gained 11.12 points, or 0.81 per cent, to 1391.74.

- NZPA