NZ stocks: F&P adds sparkle to busy day

The sharemarket had an active day despite the top 40 index finishing in negative territory.

Campbell Stuart of UBS Warburg said most of the action was centred around a few stocks, with some featuring healthy turnover.

"It wasn't a bad day - if every day was like that I'm sure we'd be happier," Mr Stuart said.

The NZSE-40 capital index shed 10 points, or 0.48 per cent, to 2038.93 while the NZSE-SCI capital index was down 42.43 points at 5480.10.

Turnover of 32.87 million stocks, valued at $96.60 million, was topped by Telecom's $45.11 million followed by Fisher & Paykel's $11.36 million.

Telecom has been moving in 13c increments for several days now, and shed all of Tuesday's gains to close at $5.15 after a series of earnings warnings from US tech companies.

"Telecom saw very good volume and was whipped around," Mr Stuart said. "It started in the 520s, went to the 510s and finished in the mid-range."

Star performer Fisher & Paykel piled on further gains, closing up 35c at $12.85.

Fisher & Paykel plans to complete the separation of its healthcare and appliance divisions, and the subsequent 20 per cent US Healthcare share offer, by year's end.

"It's been a fantastic performer and it's really come into its own on the back of an extraordinarily good performance by its healthcare business over the last period," Mr Stuart said.

"It's thinly traded, and gaps up on the fact that it's become a very attractive proposition for a lot of people."

Casino company Sky City also continued hitting new highs, closing up 30c at $11.50.

"It's still got particularly attractive yield, and the likely approval of [expansion of the gaming floor] is pretty positive, so on balance it's just a preferred stock," Mr Stuart said.

"There seem to be two or three stocks - F&P, Fletcher Building, Sky City - drawing quite a lot of the attention at the moment."

Fletcher Building was down 1c at $2.56 after a 6.8 per cent gain last week. After the market closed Building announced the $5 million sale of some non-core assets of Fletcher Aluminium to Ullrich Aluminium.

In a further twist to the Montana saga, the Takeovers Panel made an order restraining Lion Nathan from acquiring shares in the winemaker.

Montana rose 5c to $4.40 and Lion shed 3c to $5.40.

Elsewhere on the market, Air NZ A shares lost 1c to $1.08 and the Bs gained 2c to $1.41. Air NZ said it was ready to present a formal submission to the Government seeking an expanded tie-up with Singapore Airlines.

Ports of Auckland rose 8c to $6.02, Tranz Rail was up 3c at $4.00, The Warehouse gained 5c to $5.45, Telstra rose 6c to $6.73, Sanford gained 5c to $6.50 and dental software concern Software of Excellence rose 14c to $1.75.

Cavalier lost 20c to $5.80, PDL Holdings shed 20c to $10.10, Carter Holt Harvey was down 1c at $1.76, Contact Energy shed 1c to $3.15 and UnitedNetworks lost 15c to $8.65.

- NZPA