Freightways delivers dividend, closes up

Despite delivering an 8.5c dividend to shareholders today, Freightways still closed up 4c at 324 amid a mixed market.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 0.026 per cent, or 0.809 points, at 3155.654. Turnover was 36,464,705 shares, worth $81,809,130.75. There were 51 rises and 39 falls in the 121 stocks traded .

Fletcher Building, Cavalier and Auckland Airport reacted positively to news released today of net immigration increases in a mixed, fairly quiet market, ASB securities head of advisory Stephen Wright said.

"It will eventually help the building industry, and the carpet industry in time.

"Some reasonable success stories, like Freightways, and Port of Tauranga, which also ex-div only fell 10c," he said.

"There's stack of companies that have gone off the boil - Tower, Vector, Skycity," he said. The falls were mostly due to profit-taking, he said.

Telecom closed at 263, losing 4c. Fletcher Building, now New Zealand's biggest listed company, closed up 3c at 835. Contact Energy fell 7c to 591 and SkyCity fell 6c to 318.

Auckland Airport rose 7c to 192, Cavalier rose 8c to 270, Restaurant Brands rose 6c to 125 and Nuplex rose 3c to 243.

Steel & Tube rose 3c to 338, SkyTV rose 4c to 452 and Rakon rose 4c to 149.

Mainfreight fell 8c to 525, The Warehouse fell 2c to 410, and Tower fell 6c to 172. APN News fell 4c to 245. Port of Tauranga shares fell 10c to 670, after paying out a dividend to investors.

In the United States, stocks rose on Friday (local time) as Procter & Gamble and major home builders advanced on positive brokerage comments and investors bet the economic recovery will be strong enough to sustain corporate profits.

The Dow Jones industrial average hit a new 11-month high and capped its best week in two months.

The Dow was up 0.4 per cent at 9820.20, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.3 per cent at 1068.30, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.3 per cent at 2132.86.

- NZPA