Fletcher Building leads shares higher with 15c rise

File photo / NZ Herald

The New Zealand sharemarket rose yesterday with a 15c rise in the price of Fletcher Building shares to $9.52.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 16.04 points, or 0.46 per cent, at 3461.32. Turnover was worth $94.6 million. There were 56 rises and 45 falls among the 118 shares traded.

"The overnight markets on Friday were a mixed bag and we've drifted along a bit," said Stuart Hardie, an adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.

"Fletcher Building is an ongoing good news story," he said.

Vector fell 11c to $2.46 on a day it expressed dissatisfaction with a Commerce Commission proposal to change the basis for a default price path for electricity distribution businesses.

"This overturns the basis under which most lines companies and market participants have been using to estimate the impact of the new regulatory regime for a considerable period of time," Vector said.

"Uncertainty is not good for share prices," Hardie said.

TrustPower rose 2c to $7.30 and Contact Energy eased 3c to $5.73.

Turners & Growers was untraded on a day it was announced that Tony Gibbs would not stand for re-election as chairman at the annual meeting on June 30. Tower, which continues to be chaired by Gibbs, rose 5c to $1.86.

Rakon rose 8c and Scott Technology rose 3c to $1.45.

Port of Tauranga rose 16c to $8.50. SkyCity rose 3c to $3.44 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 3c to $3.09.

PGG Wrightson was unchanged at 53c and Pyne Gold Corp rose 2c to 28c.

Shares in fishing company Sanford eased 9c to $5.55. Recent strength in the share price triggered a query from NZX market supervision on Friday.

Sanford replied it was affected by worldwide commodity market prices and recent export statistics showed improvements in seafood prices, compared with last year.

In the United States on Friday (US time), stocks fell late as a spike in oil prices revived worries that inflation would derail the recovery, jolting a market that had been treading water ahead of corporate earnings.

Brent crude futures settled above US$126 a barrel, the highest level in 32 months, as the weak US dollar drove up commodities and fighting in Libya raised fears of prolonged supply cuts.

Trading volumes remained low, a sign that investors are holding off ahead of the release of quarterly earnings beginning next week.

- NZPA