Sharemarket rises despite receivership news

The New Zealand sharemarket made moderate gains today on sustained confidence even though Eftpos company ProvencoCadmus was placed in receivership.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 31.646 points, or 1.049 per cent, at 3047.849. Turnover was worth $78.45m. There were 60 rises and 27 falls among the 120 stocks traded.

Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton, Hindin Greene said was there was a sustained positive mood today as the market got closer to the reporting season.

The failure of ProvencoCadmus was disappointing but the company had been struggling for some time. Receivers were appointed today and trading was halted then suspended.

"It sounds like they were doing everything possible to get things turned around but were not in a position to get that done," Mr Williamson said.

The other big corporate story of the day, the takeover of Pharmacybrands by Life Pharmacy, had little impact on the market as Life Pharmacy is a tightly held stock. Its price rose 24c to 60.

Otherwise there was a broad rally in the market.

Telecom rose 5c to $2.83, Fletcher Building rose 22c to $7.40 and Contact Energy rose 4c to $6.34.

SkyCity rose 7c to $3.36, Fisher and Paykel Appliances rose 1c to 88 and Hallenstein Glassons rose 5c to $2.80.

Air NZ rose 1c to $1.11. Freightways rose 4c to $3.15 and Mainfreight rose 10c to $4.65.

Auckland Airport rose 1c to $1.71. SkyTV rose 8c to $4.40. NZX rose 5c to $7.75. Horizon rose 14c to $3.00.

Lion Nathan eased a cent to $14.97 and NZ Farming Systems Uruguay eased 1c to 50.

Hellaby eased 5c to $1.20, Michael Hill eased 1c to 66 and The Warehouse eased 5c to $3.94. Sanford eased 5c to $5.25.

Property For Industry was unchanged at $1.17 after announcing a little changed interim report.

In the United States, the stock market ended its best July in 20 years.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.2 per cent to 9171.61, the S&P 500 index rose 0.1 per cent to 987.48, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3 per cent to 1978.50.

- NZPA