NZ stocks: F&P shines, high dollar lifts trade

The Top 40 index touched its highest level since August 2000 yesterday, as New Zealand's strong currency continued to attract overseas interest.

At one stage the NZSE-40 capital index hit 2150.31 but closed flat, down 0.73 points at 2139.48.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare shareholders welcomed the company's March-year net profit of $48.1 million, in the middle of the forecast range.

Richard Leggat, head of research at UBS Warburg, said the stock had been a "dreadful performer", trading at half the price punters valued it at last year, but yesterday it was rewarded with a 40c rise to $9.15, up 4.5 per cent - "a bit of a relief rally".

Its 20 per cent shareholder, F&P Appliances, rose 15c to $9.60.

Total market turnover was a heavy $143.5 million and much of the activity related to a reweighting of the respected Morgan Stanley Composite International (MSCI) index, which took effect last night.

Other factors were the strong currency, said Leggat. During the afternoon, the New Zealand dollar spiked to a two-year high of US48.10c. The kiwi closed right on 48USc.

"It's been a good month, and you add the currency strength and for offshore investors New Zealand has been a good place to be," he said.

"Some of the bigger stocks have been bought on the basis that international portfolio managers want to get some New Zealand-dollar exposure.

Infrastructure investor Infratil rose just 1c to $1.90 after posting a net after-tax profit of $80.5 million for the year to March. The result was up sharply on last year's $16.5 million figure, but brokers said the result was already priced in.

Leggat said the MSCI index changes had created some quite heavy movements and price changes. Stocks that benefited from the changes included Sky TV and its majority shareholder, INL.

Sky TV rose 15c to $4.65 and INL rose 12c to $4.02 on solid volumes.

The Warehouse, which lost some of its index weighting, fell 11c to $7.20. The MSCI is shifting from being based on full market capitalisations to measuring a company by its "free float" or freely trading shares.

Leggat said only about a dozen New Zealand companies were included on the MSCI index.

Other moves included Air NZ, up 2c to 71c; Auckland Airport, down 12c to $4.47; Baycorp, up 19c, or 4.3 per cent, to $4.54; and Contact, down 5c to $3.99.

Carter Holt, a big trader this week, lost 8c to $2.01, retracing a large portion of this week's gains.

Brokers blamed profit-taking for the fall, with some 6.1 million shares worth $12.5 million changing hands.

The most actively traded stock yesterday was Fletcher Forests preference shares, which dropped 2c to 24c on 10.1 million shares.

Second was Telecom, which topped the total value traded with $40.9 million worth of shares.

The stock was up 3c to $5.15, and brokers said some investors were using the stock as a currency proxy.

- NZPA