NZ Stocks: Sharemarket firms on light volume

12.20 pm

The sharemarket firmed today on light volumes in line with a firmer Wall Street.

"It's a pretty quiet, featureless market, but at least it's on the right side of the ledger," said Forsyth Barr Frater Williams executive director Don Turkington.

"It's a bit brighter following on from the Dow being up," he said adding that although the New Zealand market had not risen lately, it had performed relatively well to other markets.

The NZSE-40 index was up 2.67 points to 2033.92 at 11.30am of slim volume of $14.4 million.

Features were thin on the ground, with Sky City Casino's $68.3 million year profit in line with expectations.

However, Dr Turkingon said Sky City's half stake in Force was an overhang on the casino operator.

"It's not doing them any good," he said.

The stock fell 30c to 1080.

Force meanwhile announced a $47.5 million year loss and its shares lost another 1c to 9c. Its price has dived from 84c in February last year.

Ports of Auckland fell 1c to 552 after it announced its year profit rose to $44.3 million from $42.3 million.

It also said it had suspended its proposed inland port in Palmerston North as it could not get agreement with Tranz Rail. The latter rose 9c to 409.

Telecom, after initially rising was flat on 507, while The Warehouse was up 10c to 570.

Natural Gas Corp, which yesterday posted a $302 million year loss with one-off losses of $312 million, fell another 3c to 101.

"Most people were expecting a horrendous result and they got one," said Dr Turkington.

Fletcher Building rose to 257 before easing back to be 3c up on yesterday's close at 255.

Westfield fell 21c to 4000 on volume of just 1000.

Tower was up 2c to 512 and Steel & Tube was up 5c to 198.

DB group rose 10c to 510. Its indirect part-owner Fraser & Neave climbed 3.25 per cent in Singapore to $S7.95 on market speculation the food and beverage group was in a takeover play.

The group, which last week announced a share buy-back, has also seen substantial shareholder Brierley Investments hike its stake recently.

There were 33 rises and 38 falls among the 120 stocks traded.

- NZPA