Fletcher dips after renewed bid for Crane Group

File photo / NZ Herald

Fletcher Building shares fell in a weak market yesterday after the company upped its bid for Australian plumbing supplies firm Crane Group, winning the approval of Crane's board.

It was always likely to be a down day with turmoil in Egypt spooking markets globally and after United States stocks posted their biggest one-day loss in six months on Friday.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed down 13.895 points, or 0.414 per cent, at 3338.74 after opening down 11.35 points.

Turnover was expected to be reduced by the Auckland Anniversary Day holiday but brokers said volume was good in both Fletcher Building and Telecom shares. Turnover was worth $84.98 million. There were 35 rises and 40 falls among the 104 stocks traded.

Fletcher Building shares closed down 16c at $7.73 but this was off the low of the session of $7.70.

Telecom fell 4c to $2.28 with 10.7 million shares traded.

New Zealand Oil & Gas shares fell 1c to 85c after the company said in its quarterly activities report that it would incur a "significant accounting loss" for the six months to the end of December because of the disaster at the Pike River mine, where 29 men died.

Bathurst Resources fell 4c to $1.30. SkyCity shares were down 5c early to $3.24, but ended down 1c at $3.28. Tower fell 1c to $1.95, Cavalier Carpets fell 1c to $3.19, Sanford fell 2c to $5.00.

Mainfreight fell 2c to $8.14, Contact Energy fell 1c to $6.15 and The Warehouse fell 1c to $3.65.

Steel and Tube rose 3c to $2.30, NZ Refining rose 6c to $4.69 and Restaurant Brands rose 3c to $2.48.

Sky TV rose 3c to $5.35 and TrustPower rose 4c to $7.24. Infratil rose 1c to $1.88 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 1c to $3.18.

Today Building Society Holdings, the merged entity made up of Marac Finance and Southern Cross and Canterbury building societies, begins trading on the exchange.

In the US on Saturday, increased instability in the Middle East drove up the CBOE Volatility Index, the stock market's fear gauge, as investors scrambled for protective positions.

Trading volume was the highest of the year at 9.97 billion shares on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, compared to last year's estimated daily average of 8.47 billion. NZPA