NZ stocks: Spirited fight for Montana

The sharemarket cleared 2000 points yesterday on the back of its first corporate takeover duel of the year.

Lion Nathan upped the ante in the bidding war for the country's biggest winemaker, Montana, offering $4.65 a share for up to 50.01 per cent of Montana, trumping a full bid after the market's close on Wednesday by British-based Allied Domecq at $4.40 a share.

Montana shares sprinted as high as $4.75 on the back of the Lion offer, closing up 63c at $4.67 on heavy volume of 5.68 million worth $26.6 million.

Lion Nathan closed down 4c at $4.90 as investors puzzled over the brewer's next move.

"The game is far from over yet, but Montana traded towards the top end of its range," ABN Amro head of institutional dealing Nigel Scott said.

The share price has risen 179 per cent since last May, when Lion began buying in.

Mr Scott said some Montana investors were wary of having missed out on transactions in the past, a factor which had sparked a little bit of selling at the top of the stock's range.

Total market turnover was 39.67 million shares valued at a healthy $101.48 million.

The positive sentiment surrounding Montana also rubbed off on a number of other leading New Zealand stocks.

Stocks to gain included Auckland Airport, up 11c at $3.45, Carter Holt, up 2c at $1.62, Sky City, 20c higher at $9.29 and INL, up 8c at $3.90.

Stephen Tindall's The Warehouse also added 21c to its value ahead of today's Q2 sales data, while Fletcher stocks Building and Energy added 1c and 2c respectively to $2.11 and $9.05.

Contact Energy gained a further 3c at $2.96 after Wednesday's announcement it was to increase prices for natural gas.

Yesterday's losers included Telecom, which continued to slide ahead of next week's half-year result and negative sentiment surrounding its Australian activities.

The stock closed down 2c at $5.35 on turnover of 5.68 million shares worth $30.35 million.

Sky TV slipped 1c to $3.65, Fisher & Paykel shed 4c to $8.06, Baycorp fell 16c to $12.59 and AMP lost 20c at $23.91.

In all there were 46 rises and 50 falls among the 145 stocks traded.

The dollar closed weaker at 43.90USc yesterday, after an overnight spike driven by corporate activity in the stock market.

Strong employment data provided some energy dayside but that soon waned, and the kiwi succumbed to the global forex forces restraining its usual travelling companions, the aussie and euro.

Greenwich Financial Services director Earl White said the local unit rallied overnight on news that British company Allied Domecq had bid for Montana, which raised the prospect of heavy demand for the currency.

"That gave people a psychological boost. Then when the kiwi went above 81Ac there was some stop-loss buying," Mr White said.

However, Mr White said December quarter household labour force survey data showing unemployment at 5.6 per cent - the lowest rate for a dozen years - were not as good as initially thought as productivity had fallen.

- NZPA