Sky TV leads sharemarket higher

Sky TV shares closed up 3.5 per cent at $2.66. Picture / Sarah Ivey

New Zealand shares were mixed, as Xero dropped ahead of its departure from the benchmark index and Metlifecare led retirement stocks lower, while Sky Network Television and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose.

The S&P/NZX50 Index edged up 3.3 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 8,280.81. Within the index, 27 stocks fell, 17 rose and six were unchanged. Turnover was $155.7 million.

Retirement village stocks dropped, with Metlifecare the worst performer on the NZX50, down 2.5 per cent to $5.95, while Summerset Group Holdings dropped 1 per cent to $5.15. Ryman Healthcare fell 0.5 per cent to $10.30, having bought land for a new site in Wellington. Real Estate Institute residential housing figures are due tomorrow.

"Despite relatively soft housing market sales and price data over the past several months, the retirement sector has been pretty strong," said Matt Goodson, managing director at Salt Funds Management. "There's no new information out there, but today they're just having a bit of a breather."

Xero was the second-worst performer, dropping 1.7 per cent to $29.80. It's up 73 per cent this year but down 11 per cent since November 9, when it announced its plans to delist from the NZX in favour of a sole listing on the ASX.

"It's continuing weakness in the lead-up to exiting the index this Friday, there's some possibility it may be removed from other global indices as well," Goodson said.

Pushpay Holdings, which is set to replace Xero on the benchmark index, rose 3.1 per cent to $3.68.

"It's a feature of markets at the moment - fundamentals still rule, but in between times inclusions and exclusions are something people keep an eye on because of the impact it does have," Goodson said.

The best performer on the benchmark index today was Sky TV, up 3.5 per cent to $2.66. Skycity Entertainment Group rose 2.3 per cent to $4.02 and Metro Performance Glass gained 2.1 per cent to 97 cents.

F&P Healthcare rose 0.5 per cent to $13.59. The company has extended its patent fight with ResMed to Australia, seeking damages and injunctions to halt sales of its rival's products that it says infringed four patents.

Last month, F&P Healthcare won a patent case against ResMed in the UK in the ongoing intellectual property dispute for its face and Nasal masks across various jurisdictions.

Outside the benchmark index, ERoad is in a trading halt at $3.30 as it looks to raise at least $18m through a placement and a share purchase plan to fund an upgrade of its back-end systems amid a push into North America