NZ stocks: Sharemarket proves resilient

The New Zealand sharemarket proved resilient today with its benchmark index moving up, seemingly undaunted by the terror attacks in Saudi Arabia and a fall in bellwether stock Telecom.

The benchmark NZSX-50 gross index was up 6.57 points at 2595.73. But the NZSX-All capital index was down 3.57 points at 873.49.

Much of the indices' divergence came from Telecom's 7.5c a share quarterly dividend being factored into the NZSX-50, but stripped out of the NZSX-All capital index.

Telecom shares were down 7c at 549, on turnover worth $36.3 million.

Total market turnover for the day was worth $115.6 million.

Stephen Wright of ASB Securities said that although Asian sharemarkets had fallen today, both New Zealand and Australia had good days with decent volumes.

Sharemarkets in Britain and the US are closed for market holidays today.

"Tomorrow will be interesting to see if there's any negative reaction (in Britain or the US) to what transpired in Saudi Arabia in the weekend. ...Obviously other Asian markets may have been reacting to that, but we and Australia didn't," Mr Wright said.

Other stocks to go ex-dividend today were DB Group (16.5cps) which fell 23c to 788, and Urbus Properties (3.62cps), down 1c at 92c.

In corporate news, forestry investor Rubicon reported a 91.4 per cent slump in its March year net profit to $1.21 million. The company also said today it had satisfied all the conditions for its bid for wood processor Tenon.

Mr Wright said investor reaction to the result would have been muted as the market was more focused on the outcome of its Tenon bid.

Rubicon shares were up 1c at 84c, while Tenon was down 2c at 189.

Mainfreight's March year net profit dropped 33 per cent to $6 million, including its share of 80 per cent in Owens Group which posted a net loss of $5.8 million.

Mainfreight was down 3c at 180, while Owens Group was down 4c at 108.

Shares in New Zealand Oil & Gas (NZOG) plunged 11.1 per cent after it said the Pukeko-1 well off the Taranaki coast was not likely to be commercially developed. NZOG shares were down 8c at 64.

Other stocks on the move today included: Carter Holt Harvey up 1c at 197, Contact Energy down 2c at 562, Cavalier down 2c at 475, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare up 7c at 1275, NGC up 4c at 263, Tpwer up 4c at 163, TrustPower down 5c at 415, Sanford down 5c at 480, Pacific Retail Group down 5c at 215, NZX down 24c at 861 and NZ Refining down 25c at 1880.

- NZPA