Market rises on Black Monday anniversary

The New Zealand sharemarket started the week on a positive note and welcomed news of the float of retailer Kathmandu.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 13.72 points, or 0.428 per cent, at 3220.924. Turnover was worth $71.18 million, of which $25m was in Fletcher Building shares. There were 54 rises and 31 falls among the 116 stocks traded.

The rise came even though the Australian and Japanese stockmarkets were weak after disappointing US corporate earnings on Friday.

On the anniversary of Black Monday 1987 there was much to be optimistic about.

Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor Philip Lowe said there were reasonable grounds to be optimistic about the medium-term prospects for the Australian economy.

Kathmandu launched a sale of shares that will be listed on both the Australian and New Zealand sharemarkets.

Fletcher Building rose 18c to 835 on good volume.

"They had the investor trip last week and there seems to be good momentum in the stock that has followed on from that," said Peter Sigley, dealer at Goldman Sachs JBWere.

Some stocks benefited from a dip from recent highs in the New Zealand dollar during the weekend.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare gained 8c to 305 after reporting it had taken advantage of the strength of the New Zealand dollar to monetise US$47m ($64.4m) of forward exchange contracts. The cash benefit of $23m had been used to reduce bank debt.

Infratil rose 3c to 133, and brokers said investors are keeping an eye on the process surrounding an investment in Australia.

Horizon Energy was unchanged at 340 after the Eastern Bay Energy Trust, which owns 77.3 per cent of Horizon, announced its decision to reject the offer from Marlborough Lines.

Air NZ fell 3c to 130 after announcing reductions to domestic fares on Friday.

Retailers were strong with Michael Hill up 1c to 67, The Warehouse up 6c to 445 and Hellaby up 5c to 170. Hallenstein Glasson was unchanged at 310.

Food franchise owner Restaurant Brands rose 4c to 146.

Contact Energy rose 5c to 625 and TrustPower rose 2c to 750.

PGG Wrightson was unchanged at 78 on a day it defended its new cornerstone shareholder. NZ Farming Systems Uruguay, the subject of negative commentary, fell 1c to 45.

Ebos rose 4c to 595, NZOG rose 2c to 174 and SkyCity rose 2c to 341.

APN fell 3c to 272, GPG fell 2c to 86.

Telecom fell 2c to 248 and Auckland Airport fell 1c to 200. Nuplex fell 1c to 240 and SkyTV fell 1c to 494.

Smartpay rose 0.5 to 4.6 on good volume.

In the US, stocks fell on Friday (local time) after disappointing results from General Electric Co and Bank of America Corp demonstrated the road to economic recovery will be bumpy.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.7 per cent to 9995.91, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 0.8 per cent to 1087.68, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gave up 0.8 per cent at 2156.80.

For the week the S&P 500 was up 1.5 per cent, the Dow up 1.3 per cent and the Nasdaq up 0.8 per cent.

- NZPA