NZ stocks: Market heads higher on back of Kiwi Income Properties move

6.15pm

A stand in the market by Kiwi Income Properties was the salient point in today's trade, helping to ramp up the value of several other stocks.

Kiwi Income offered 115c a share to build a 19.9 per cent stake in Capital Properties, and quickly achieved that goal.

Shares in Capital rose 10c to 112 on turnover of $53.4 million, while those in Kiwi rose were unchanged on 110c.

Hamilton Hindin Greene broker Grant Williamson said Kiwi's stand had captured the market's attention.

"It was conducted last night with the balance done on market this morning," Mr Williamson told NZPA today.

"It was all done very quickly and the sellers (of Capital shares) were pretty keen to accept the price of 115c," he said.

Most of the Capital shareholders who cashed up were reinvesting their gains on market today, he said.

"We've seen just about all the property stocks do well today...and Telecom as well," he said.

Calan Healthcare was up 3c at 99, National Property Trust was up 3c at 94, and AMP Office Trust was up 2c at 89.

Shares in Telecom gained 8c to 604 on turnover of $65.7m.

The last two sessions have reversed the ho-hum performances the sharemarket turned in earlier this week, Mr Williamson said.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 15.81 points at 2929.48, while the NZSX-All capital index was up 6.98 points at 970.98.

Total market turnover was $190.1m, there being 75 rises and 41 falls among the 160 stocks traded.

"There have been some good performances on the market today."

Resthome operator Ryman Healthcare was up 6c at 329 after it posted a record September half net profit of $11.1m, from $8.4m at the same time last year.

New Zealand Oil & Gas continued its good run to close up 9c at 117, but Mr Williamson warned the stock could soon come in for some profit taking.

Carter Holt Harvey was up 1c at 217, while Contact Energy was up 1c at 624.

NGC Holdings was up 1c at 315 after Auckland-based lines firm Vector said it would buy Australian Gas Light's 66 per cent stake in the gas lines company directly.

It would also make a full takeover offer.

Tower was up 2c at 218, having drifted lower in recent sessions after its full year profit announcement earlier this week.

Other stocks on the move included: Air NZ up 1c at 167, ANZ Bank down 57c at 2150, Fletcher Building up 3c at 595, Infratil up 6c at 339, Lion Nathan up 10c at 850, Pyne Gould Corporation up 10c at 355, and Westpac down 15c at 1990.

- NZPA