NZ stocks: Market buoyed by rebound in F&P stocks

12.00 pm

The sharemarket firmed slightly today as Fisher & Paykel stocks began to recover from last week's beating.

F&P Appliances, often seen as the ugly sister, spurted ahead 39c, 4.4 per cent, to 930 after it put out a soothing statement to the market saying it was trading ahead of market expectations.

F&P Healthcare, 20 per cent owned by Appliances, initially fell another 7c to 10.43 to be down 25.7 per cent since it put out its third quarter result on Thursday, but later started to recover. By 11.30 am it was up 40c to 1090.

Revenue growth and profit margins in the third quarter result failed to meet market expectations and heavy punishment was meted out.

Trade in Healthcare completely dominated as institutions continued to dump the stock. But brokers said retail investors had assessed the stock as cheap and were buying. There were over three million shares traded, worth $21.2 million, boosting total turnover to $38 million -- heavy for a Monday morning.

The NZSE-40 capital index was up 4.16 points to 2072.95.

Telecom was up 5c at 534. Carter Holt Harvey was down 1c at 182, as was Fletcher Building at 296 while Contact Energy was up 3c at 374. Independent Newspapers was up 5c at 405.

Horizon was down 25c at 1275 on a very small trade. NZ Refining was down 18c at 1833.

Cavalier Carpets was up 7c at 597 after it lifted its half year net profit for the six months to December 31 to $5.8 million.

The company said the New Year looked like a turning point and "we feel that the scene is set for some good results from the business in the coming period".

F&P Appliances said operating performance in the period from November 11 to January 31 had been ahead of expectations "driven by a combination of higher than budgeted sales, improved margins and lower costs from post-restructuring".

Managing director John Bongard said there had been an improvement in sales on both sides of the Tasman.

Property investment company Property For Industry Ltd today announced a net profit after tax of $11.97 million for the year to December 31. Its shares were unchanged at 87c.

Software of Excellence was up 5c to 320 after announcing the purchase of new animated video software.

Steel & Tube, which reported a strong result on Friday, continued its good run, rising 8c to 293.

ANZ Bank was down 49c to 2170.

In all, there were 28 rises and 27 falls among the 106 stocks traded.

- NZPA