NZ shares rise after Wall St rallies on Europe bank news

Photo / NZ Herald

New Zealand shares rose yesterday after a late rally on Wall St as investors reacted to snippets of news about moves to protect Europe's banks from the sovereign debt crisis.

The NZX-50 Index rose 7.73, or 0.2 per cent, to 3328.12. Within the index 50 stocks rose, 44 fell.
From being down most of the sessions, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index jumped near the close to be 2.3 per cent up after reports that European finance ministers were looking at ways to co-ordinate shoring up the region's banks.

Investors also picked up on news that French-Belgian bank Dexia's was looking at quarantining bad debts in a "bad bank".

The late rally on Wall St was "in part, a knee-jerk reaction to the fact there was a very small amount of news flow out of Europe," said Angus Gluskie, chief investment officer at White Funds Management in Sydney. "We're seeing a similar thing here - a bit of cautious buying."

Still, he said "we need to see much greater clarity out of Europe before we can see greater gains from here."

Goodman Fielder, the Australasian food maker, climbed 3.5 per cent from a record low to 60 cents. The company, which turned to a full-year net loss after writing down its baking assets, is raising equity capital to bolster its balance sheet.

Freightways, the courier firm expanding its data management arm via an acquisition, gained 3.1 per cent to $3.38.

The company is spending $12.7 million to acquire the local information management unit of US company Iron Mountain.

The stock is rated "outperform" based on the consensus of seven recommendations compiled by Reuters.

Retailers mostly advanced. Restaurant Brands gained 2.8 per cent to $2.20 and Michael Hill International climbed 2.6 per cent to 80 cents.

Clothing chain Hallenstein Glasson Holdings rose 1.7 per cent to $3.50.

Auckland International Airport slipped 1.5 per cent to $2.28 after going ex-dividend for its final payment of 4.7 cents a share.

OceanaGold, operator of the Macraes gold field, fell 2.8 per cent to $2.83 after the price of gold declined.

Gold futures for December delivery fell 2.1 per cent to US$1623.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances was the biggest decliner, falling 4.4 per cent to 43 cents.