NZ stocks: Fun park trades briskly on mildly positive market

A fun park operator was the busiest stock on an mildly positive sharemarket today, echoing the trend overseas.

At 5pm the NZSX-50 gross index was 1.145 points or 0.049 per cent higher at 2328.71, while the NZSX-40 capital index fell 2.037 points or 0.092 per cent to 2214.30.

Turnover was a moderate $70 million, prompting brokers to comment that the traditional Christmas fall-off in volumes might be coming early.

Brokers are also watching to see if the Reserve Bank raises interest rates on December 4, a possibility which is pushing the kiwi currency to new multi-year highs but could be negative for equities.

"If interest rates go up, that means our currency becomes more attractive to offshore players, which would then keep the exchange rate going up," said John Elsom, executive director of Greenslades.

But higher interest rates could also increase the cost of capital and borrowings for companies, taking the shine off shares , he said.

However, other factors were positive and the currency was so strong, the interest rate hike might not go ahead, Mr Elsom added.

"You've got a very weak tradeable sector because of the exchange rate but domestically within New Zealand, there's strong business confidence, there's almost full employment, you've got a construction/housing sector which is still skyrocketing, and you're coming into traditionally a very business Christmas season - and Kiwis love to spend."

The strong dollar was also having an effect on rural servicing company Wrightson which warned it was looking at a 20 per cent drop in its earnings before interest and tax for its interim result to December. Wrightson shares remained unchanged at 146.

Company news was light today but the New Zealand Experience, which runs the Rainbow's End fun park, was the most actively traded stock, after initiating a buyback of just over 19 million shares - 34 per cent of the company's listed shares.

The offer came close to its target, as the share price rose a cent to the 25c offer price, on turnover of 18 million shares.

Rest-home operator Ryman Healthcare was static at 202 after initially dipping 3c when it announced a 10.6 per cent increase in half year net profit to $8.44 million.

"A little surprising given that we actually thought it was actually a good quality result... We'll probably see it supported around current levels from here," Forsyth Barr Frater Williams broker David Price said.

Stocks to go ex-dividend today are: DB Breweries 20.5 cents per share, Infratil 5 cps, Richmond 2.5 cps and National Property 2.25 cps. DB dropped 22c to 778, Infratil fell 7c to 247, and Richmond and National Property Trust were untraded.

Those on the rise included Fisher & Paykel Healthcare up 20c to 1195; Lion Nathan up 5c to 670; Baycorp Advantage was up 5c to 287; Contact Energy rose 4c to 534; Hellaby Holdings was up 12c to 465; Michael Hill rose 10c to 450; and the Warehouse gained 3c to 560.

Market bellwether Telecom was up 2c to 506 on turnover of $13.8 million.

On the downside, Ports of Auckland lost 9c to 801; Promina was off 4c to 376; Sky City was down 6c to 465; Tower was down a cent to 136; and Restaurant Brands slid another 2c to 110, after touching a new year low of 109; and Auckland International Airport was down 9c to 668, after a strong run.

NGC Holdings lost a cent to 177 after announcing it had won High Court approval to for its $525 million share buyback.

Overall, 43 stocks rose and 52 fell on 153 stocks traded.

The blue-chip Dow shook off the uncertainty of last week's terror attacks in Turkey, rising 9.11 points to 9628.53 , and the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 11.96 points at 1893.88, while the broad Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 1.63 points to 1035.28.

Britain's FTSE-100 index closed up 11 points to 4319, recouping about half of its drop on Thursday.

- NZPA