NZ stocks: Wrightson holds limelight in buoyant market

The New Zealand sharemarket steamed higher today in a session awash with news of a Craig Norgate-led bid to take control of rural services firm Wrightson.

At 5.30pm, the benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 28.60 points at 2622.032, while the NZSX-All Capital Index was up 9.01 points at 884.88.

There was turnover of $101.6 million on NZX today, and among the 156 stocks to move were 91 rises and 21 falls.

Market heavyweight Telecom was up 3c at 577 on turnover of $29.8 million, while Carter Holt Harvey was up 7c at 230 and Contact Energy was up 2c at 550.

ABN Amro Craigs broker Matt Willis said the play for Wrightson shares by Mr Norgate's Rural Portfolio Investments (RPI) was the talk of what had been a buoyant day's trading.

RPI, half owned by the former Fonterra boss's family-owned MCN Rural Investments, has proposed a bid of $1.50 a share to raise its 13 per cent stake in Wrightson to 50.1 per cent.

Wrightson shares closed up 17c higher at 141, and on turnover of $3.3 million. It has 415.5 million shares on issue.

"The big issue is whether they (RPI) are going to be able to attract some of the bigger shareholders, namely Fonterra," he said.

"It's certainly a pretty generous sort of offer, certainly a generous one," he said, adding it would be interesting to see the bid played out.

In other market news, Sky City Entertainment, which yesterday announced a $93.8 million conditional purchase of Aspinall's 40.5 per cent stake in Christchurch Casino, was up a 8c at 448.

"It was just a bit of kneejerk reaction yesterday (when Sky City shares shed 5c to 440 after the announcement,)" he said.

TrustPower whose shares split on Friday was trading at 10c higher at 400, the equivalent of 800 before the split, "which is a huge gain".

Shares on the move included: AMP up 4c at 660, Fletcher Building up 9c at 464, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare up 11c at 1221, F&P Appliances up 12c at 440, Michael Hill International up 6c at 544, Ports of Tauranga up 15c at 465, and Steel & Tube up 5c at 395.

Overseas, the Dow Jones closed up 87.78 points at 10,558.37, the Standard & Poor's 500 closed up 8.73 points at 1150.54, and the Nasdaq Composite finished up 21.95 points at 2079.12.

- NZPA