Freightways hits one year high on growth report

File photo / Paul Estcourt

The New Zealand sharemarket closed on a positive note last night, with Freightways proving to be the biggest gainer of the day.

Shares in the express mail company were pushed to a one-year high yesterday morning, gaining 9c in early trading, after the company on Monday reported strong growth in the second quarter.

Freightways later added a further 1c to close at $3.37.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up six points or 0.196 per cent to 3390.09 yesterday up from Monday's close of 3384.38.

Sky City gained 3c to $3.30, Sky TV added 2c to $5.37, Telecom added 3c to $2.24 and New Zealand Oil and Gas gained 1c to $8.70.

Michael Hill gained 1c to 90c, The Warehouse slipped 1c to $3.54, and Kathmandu fell 3c to $2.13.

Infrastructure investment group Infratil added 2c, or just over 1 per cent, to $1.96, a day after Infratil Energy Australia disclosed the purchase of a generation site in New South Wales.

Melbourne-based OceanaGold shares added 33c to $3.75 after the company said yesterday its proven and probable reserves in New Zealand had risen to 2.15 million ounces of gold at the end of December.

That was up from 1.92 million ounces a year earlier, and after the company sold 268,000 ounces of gold from its New Zealand operations last year.

Stocks which slipped included fishing company Sanford, falling 8c, or 1.59 per cent, to $4.95, and Fletcher Building, which lost 2c to $8.21.

Contact Energy fell 2c to $6.22 and Tower lost 1c to $1.98.

Air New Zealand remained unchanged at $1.39 after raising its international fares to cover rising jet fuel costs.

In the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.04 per cent to 12,268.19.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.2 per cent to 1332.32, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.3 per cent to 2817.18.

- NZPA