NZ stocks: Montana, Cavalier feature in flat trade

The sharemarket mirrored heavyweight Telecom's moves yesterday, starting down before regaining ground and ending not far from its starting-point.

The NZSE-40 capital index closed up 2.76 points, or 0.13 per cent, at 2097.

Garth Williams, of Forsyth Barr Frater Williams, said Telecom's moves, closing down 1c at $6.44 after an earlier 5c gain, typified the day. "It's as if the lights went out - Easter had a bit to do with it and Anzac Day thrown in. I think people are just in holiday mode and not looking at their investments."

Winemaker Montana closed up 10c at $4.30 following an after-market notice on Tuesday from Lion Nathan positioning itself to buy the 49 per cent it does not already own.

Tuesday's announcement was in response to a similar positioning manoeuvre from Britain's Allied Domecq on Friday.

Lion's offer, in a notice of restricted transfer to the stock exchange, extended the top end of the bidders' price ranges to $4.70 a share from Allied's top price of $4.64 on Friday.

ANZ Bank was up 40c at $17.50 after announcing a record profit of $A895 million for the six months to March, although it warned that business would not be so brisk in the second half. The New Zealand operation's profit rose to $A126 million from $A116 million.

Cavalier, under managing director Alan James, rose 9c to $4.88 after analyst reports speculated that the carpet-maker would return a reasonable amount of money to shareholders soon.

"They've sold off the wool trading division. That freed a lot of money and analysts are saying there could be as much as 80c a share going back to shareholders in the very near future," Mr Williams said.

"Although it's been on the cards for quite some time it's starting to get some useful publicity."

ABN Amro analyst Malcolm Davie said he had not seen any reports on Cavalier but a special dividend would not be a surprise.

"They've got a balance sheet which could certainly do that, we think, but the dimension of it remains up to the board to decide.

"We'd certainly see that as something which is probably overdue. They've done it before, they'll do it again. It's got a good cashflow, it's a good business.

"We wouldn't be surprised if there was a special dividend."

- NZPA