Ebos closes higher but stocks down

Shares in medical equipment company Ebos hit a new high today, adding to gains late last week after news of a 20c a share special dividend.

Ebos shares closed up 8c at 720, 5c below a record high earlier in the session.

However, the benchmark NZX-50 retreated from an earlier six-month high and closed down 4.3 points at 3285.44. The index gained 24.8 points on Friday, and was closed for the Labour Day public holiday yesterday.

Sharemarket operator NZX was up 4c at 159 after news yesterday that Singapore's stock exchange has launched an A$8.4 billion takeover bid for the Australian Securities Exchange.

NZX says it will have to carefully assess the opportunities and threats of the proposed takeover, which would create the fifth-largest listed exchange operator in the world.

The merger of SGX and the ASX - Asia's second- and third-largest listed exchange operators respectively - aims to ward off the threat of alternative trading systems, line up new avenues for growth and cut costs.

Among the blue chips, Telecom was down 2c at 207, Fletcher Building shed 12c to 808, Contact Energy was flat at 585, Auckland Airport lost 2c to 209 and Infratil lost a cent to 182.

Smaller cap stocks were generally cheerier, with fast food franchise operator Restaurant Brands hitting a record high of 272. The stock closed up 4c at 269.

Sanford gained 4c to 444, The Warehouse lifted 3c to 403, Vector was up 5c at 241 and Kathmandu rose 6c to 190.

Both the dual-listed Australian-based banks were up, with ANZ adding 90c to 3140 and Westpac lifting 77c to 3017. They rose across the Tasman yesterday, ahead of the results season which kicks off tomorrow with National Australia Bank.

AMP jumped 22c to 722 and Telstra rose 2c to 349.

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.5 per cent, or 21.5 points, to 4688.6 as questions were raised over the Singapore Exchange's planned takeover.

In the United States, stocks rose to a 5-1/2-month high as a falling US dollar, partly driven by expectations of further stimulus by the Federal Reserve, prompted investors to buy riskier assets.

- NZPA