NZ stocks: Busy market defies Wall Street blues

The sharemarket "bounced to its own tune" yesterday as it digested a string of company announcements.

"It's a very healthy market ... but I think it's being liquidity driven," broker Richard Burton, of Forsyth Barr Frater Williams, said.

"Our stocks were never particularly expensive so there may be a little re-rating down here from offshore, plus there's local liquidity. The liquidity that's going to come out of Frucor and Contact has got to be reinvested."

Mr Burton said The Warehouse, Telecom and Sky City were examples of stocks which were benefiting as cashed-up investors looked around.

The Warehouse rose 10c to $6.50 and Sky City was up 5c to $12.35 after a share split announcement.

But the big news was Telecom, which rose 18c to $4.63 on solid turnover.

At the close, the NZSE-40 capital index rose 17 points to 1958. Nearly 49 million shares worth $123.6 million changed hands.

Company announcements were a feature of yesterday's trading. Resin manufacturer Nuplex topped the turnover with $52 million-worth of stock traded, but its share price sank 25c to $2.80 after US investment fund Shamrock Holdings said it was quitting its 16 per cent stake.

There was also confirmation that Wilson & Horton, publisher of the New Zealand Herald and a major shareholder in The Radio Network, would be sold to Australian media company APN News & Media. Both companies are controlled by Sir Anthony O'Reilly's Independent News.

Fast food operator Restaurant Brands closed up 7c to $1.70 after announcing that it would sell and lease back some of its KFC stores, making the company around $45 million for debt reduction and future growth.

And Steel & Tube Holdings jumped 9c to $2.39 after announcing a special dividend of 10c a share.

Takeover target Contact Energy gained 3c to $4.15 as speculation grew that an independent report on the company's value might be released today.

Technology company Advantage Group was steady at 35c after posting an unaudited loss of $169,000 for the three months to September 30.

Air NZ A and B shares were also steady at 29c after the company reported a pre-tax operating loss of $50.2 million in the September quarter.

Fisher & Paykel lost 20c to $14.25 and Sky TV fell 5c to $3.45 despite announcing it would screen TV1 and 2 channels.

But the move bumped up the price of Sky's major shareholder INL by 5c to $3.55.

There were 56 rises and 50 falls among the 139 stocks traded.

* Hallowe'en brought a bit of a horror day for the New Zealand dollar which looked ready to continue sinking overnight.

At 5 pm, the kiwi was at 41.36USc from 41.62c on Tuesday night, and the aussie was at 50.53USc from 50.77c.

The kiwi's range was 41.28/41.43c, with the high struck early in the day, one local dealer said.

"It came off from there on the back of the aussie getting sold down to 50.35USc, and really struggled to rally throughout the course of the day.

"It has been a bit dull. Today's the 31st, so month end - a bit of domestic corporate market selling so that just weighed on it a bit. I've only really seen one buyer throughout the course of the day, so the tone was to knock the kiwi down a bit."

- NZPA