Fletcher Building leads solid blue chip stock gains

File photo / NZ Herald

Solid gains by blue chip stocks, including a fresh three-year high for Fletcher Building, drove the New Zealand sharemarket higher yesterday, but progress was held in check by light volumes and little corporate news.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 9.87 points, or 0.29 per cent, at 3469.38.

"At the moment, it's had a relatively good run as have some of the other markets, and it looks to me to be taking a bit of a breather until its next move," said David Price of Forsyth Barr.

Fletcher Building gained a further 8c to close at $9.41. The company has been on the rise with the $1.3 billion deal to buy Australia's Crane Group.

The stock's inclusion in the S&P/ASX 200 Index last month has also attracted more heavyweight investors.

Among other top stocks, Contact Energy lost 3c to $5.79, Telecom was down 0.5c at $2.06, casino company Sky City rose 4c to $3.47, Sky TV gained 7c to $5.77 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 2c at $3.19.

Trustpower was up 2c at $7.20, while Infratil was steady at $1.92.

Vector gained 4c to $2.63, Steel & Tube gained 6c to $2.77, Mainfreight jumped 15c to record high $9.09 and Ebos Group gained 5c to $7.65.

NZOG was flat at 95c as the Royal Commission preliminary hearing opened in Greymouth. NZOG has a 29 per cent shareholding in Pike River, the West Coast coal mine where an explosion last November killed 29 men.

On the decline were financial services stock Tower, down 5c at $1.85, Pumpkin Patch, down 4c at $1.29, and NZ Refining, down 3c at $4.79.

The market did not react to the release of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's quarterly business survey, which showed a decline in sentiment after Christchurch's devastating earthquake but was not as bad as it could have been, Price said.

"The expectation is that, we've got a strong currency and weakish demand, that we're still going to be in for challenging times."

Across the Tasman, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 0.2 per cent at 4898.5 following a no-change to interest rates as expected from the Reserve Bank of Australia this afternoon.

Earlier in the United States, the S&P 500 Index failed to break a level that has held since mid-February and ended flat, even as a spate of deals and underlying strength in the economy spurred optimism.

- NZPA