NZ stocks: Bid talk puts fizz into Lion

The sharemarket had a fairly flat day on small turnover of $64 million, with the key feature Lion Nathan fizzing up 10c on market rumours.

The NZSE-40 capital index ended up 6.86 points, a 0.33 per cent gain, at 2064.63.

Topping turnover valued at $64.12 million was Telecom, with $22.92 million ahead of its third-quarter result today.

Telecom closed down 1c at $6.00 with average analysts' forecasts for the quarter predicting a fall in net profit to around $153 million from $205 million in the previous March quarter.

Lion Nathan gained 10c to $5.05 on rumours that Dutch beer giant Heineken Holdings would make a bid for Lion's Australian rival, Foster's.

In New Zealand, Heineken owns 76 per cent of DB Breweries through a joint-venture with Singapore soft-drinks maker Fraser and Neave.

JB Were's Mark Gander said that by the end of the day Foster's had "pretty well denied" the bid rumour.

Montana was unchanged at $4.25, closing before the release of a fresh valuation for its shares of between $4.24 and $4.72 a share.

Fisher and Paykel hit a record high of $9.10, up 30c, with the market expecting robust results from it in the first week of June, after strong whiteware-sales figures in Australia.

"There might be some interest just ahead of the proposed separation of the whiteware business from the healthcare operation," Mr Gander said.

Sir Ron Brierley's Guinness Peat Group also hit a record high of $1.69, up 3c. GPG's rise may have been related to the announcement last week that it was considering a debt float to the tune of $250 million, Mr Gander said.

PDL Holdings was up 45c at $9.25 as Schneider Electric continued to lift its stake in the Christchurch manufacturer. The French company has now a 26.5 per cent stake in PDL.

Kiwi Property Income Trust and Property for Industry were up 1c to 87c and 82c respectively - on reasonable turnover. "I guess people are focusing again on some of these higher-yielding entities ahead of any further interest rate reduction here," Mr Gander said.

Elsewhere, Carter Holt was up 3c at $1.79 and Fletcher Building rose 6c to $2.29.

TrustPower fell 17c to $3.20 after a 32c jump on Wednesday when US-based Alliant International signalled its desire to buy another 21 per cent of the company.

Advantage Group fell 3c to 83c, Baycorp shed 15c to $12.20 and Infratil lost 3c to $1.40.

- NZPA