KEY POINTS:
A lot of shares were unchanged on a quiet New Zealand share market today.
Among the movers it was difficult to decipher trends as volume was light ahead of the Waitangi Day holiday weekend.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 4.877 points, or 0.176 per cent, at 2773.495. Shares worth $79.27 million traded.
APN News rose 1c to 227 after announcing the sale of online business directories FindA.co.nz, Wises maps, menus.co.nz, UBD and APNData businesses.
The corporate reporting season still looms but the good news often comes at the start and minnow South Port today unveiled an increased interim profit and raised dividend. It was unchanged at 210 with just 1400 shares traded.
Fonterra said it has buyers for $800 million of bonds but unfortunately it is not listed on the market.
Auckland Airport, which also closed off a bond sale, rose 2c to 190.
Contact fell 6c to 678 and announced the resignation of its chief financial officer today.
Rakon rose 2c to 99 but Stephen Wright of ASB Securities said it was on light volume. Mainfreight rose 10c to 400, again on light volume.
"It is just flows," Mr Wright said. "We are still tending to get more calls on stocks with dividend yields," he said.
Telecom rose 6c to 270 and it continues to be the stand out stock in terms of volume traded with more than 11 million shares changing hands today. Sky TV rose 8c to 430. NZ Refining rose 8c to 710.
Falls included The Warehouse, down 10c to 360, and Westpac down 60c to 2030. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 5c at 329 and Hallenstein Glasson fell another 4c to 216 in the wake of a profit warning.
Cavalier eased 2c to 185 and Port of Tauranga eased 1c to 581.
US stocks fell on Wednesday as a glum profit forecast from Kraft Foods suggested consumers are skimping even on the basics.
However, a report showing that the US service sector shrank less than expected in January spurred gains in technology.
Kraft, the top North American food maker, tumbled more than 9 per cent and Walt Disney Co fell nearly 8 per cent a day after reporting a slide in quarterly profit.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 121.70 points, or 1.51 per cent, to 7956.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 6.28 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 832.23. The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 1.25 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 1515.05.
- NZPA
