Market makes small gain on light trading

The New Zealand sharemarket edged ahead today in quiet trading with capital raisings and fixed interest offerings said to be continuing to soak up demand.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed up 7.778 points, or 0.25 per cent, at 3115.391.

Turnover was worth $79 million. There were 36 rises and 45 falls among the 116 stocks traded.

"New Zealand is just quiet. I think a lot of the money is getting channelled to the IPOs and fixed interest new issues that are on the go," Stuart Hardie, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.

"Once they are wrapped up we'll pull down the shutters and that will be the end of the year I would say," he said.

PGG Wrightson, which is in the middle of a large capital raising, rose 1c to 65.

Allied Farmers was unchanged at 31 after Hanover Finance said it was unaware of any other offers for it and was committed to presenting the Allied offer to investors.

Among the leaders, Fletcher Building was up 10c to 775, Telecom was down 2c at 244 and Contact Energy was up 10c to 600.

Sanford rose 5c to 480 ahead of its annual report today which showed a difficult second half.

Mainfreight lost 10c to 550, while Steel & Tube dropped 9c to 285.

Port of Tauranga fell 3c to 705 and SkyCity was unchanged at 334. SkyTV fell 6c to 460. GPG rose 1c to 81 and TrustPower rose 5c to 750.

In the United States, stocks slipped on lacklustre economic data in a session marked by low volume and choppy trading ahead of the Thanksgiving Day holiday, but losses eased after the Federal Reserve increased its expectations for growth in 2010.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.16 per cent at 10,433.71, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 0.05 per cent to 1105.65, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.31 per cent to close at 2169.18.

- NZPA