NZ stocks: RPI's Wrightson bid features in quiet morning trade

1.10pm

The sharemarket eased in quiet morning trade today with Rural Portfolio Investments' bid for Wrightson featuring and the listing of New Zealand Herald owner APN Media proving to be a slow starter.

At 12.30pm the NZS-50 gross index was down 4.05 points at 2636.41, while the NZSX all capital index was down 1.96 points to 883.86. Total turnover by 11.30am was $24.22 million and there were 34 rises and 432 falls among the 119 stocks traded.

Direct Broking's Peter Lynds said it had been a reasonably quiet session. "There's nothing really happening out there... a typical Monday."

Across the top stocks, Telecom was down 2c to 566, Contact Energy down a cent to 585, Fletcher Building down 5c to 441 and Sky City up 1c to 469.

The Craig Norgate-led Rural Portfolio Investments' (RPI) bid for Wrightsons progressed further this morning, with RPI confirming it had secured an acceptance from British asset management fund Marathon, which holds 7.9 per cent of Wrightson.

RPI's $1.65 a share bid for 50.01 per cent of Wrightson closes on Wednesday and this morning Mr Norgate said the progress of the offer "was consistent with media reports on Friday suggesting that the combination of Marathon's acceptance with those processed by Friday evening would indicate a holding in Wrightson of approximately 40 per cent".

Wrightson shares eased 1 cent to $1.56 in early trading.

The Herald's owner APN listed on the NZSX at 11.30am today but remained untraded by midday.

"It will probably take a while to get any volume going over here if at all -- it could just be very quiet," Mr Lynds said.

Elsewhere, Telstra was up 29c to 555 after chairman John Ralph today pledged to return A$1.5 billion ($1.66 billion) to shareholders annually for the next three years.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 2c to 1324 after saying it was expanding its Japanese operations to take advantage of the growing market there for obstructive sleep apnea treatments.

Other stocks to move in morning trade included:

Auckland International Airport down 3c to 665, Dorchester Pacific up 3c to 278, Feltex up 2c to 168, Independent Newspapers down 3c to 477, Port of Tauranga down 5c to 515, Pumpkin Patch up 2c to 143, Ryman Healthcare up 5c to 270, Steel & Tube Holdings down 2c to 396, The Warehouse down 2c to 428.

- NZPA