NZ stocks: NGC sale to Contact provides highlight

Natural Gas Corp's announcement to sell its Taranaki Combined Cycle power plant to Contact Energy provided the main action on the New Zealand sharemarket today.

The NZSE-40 capital index closed up 7.81 points, or 0.40 per cent, at 1938.45, while the top-10 index gained 0.16 per cent to 871.34.

Natural Gas Corp said today it had conditionally sold the Taranaki Combined Cycle (TCC) power station to Contact Energy for $500 million.

The four year-old, 357Mw will complement Contact's existing thermal generation plants. Contact's purchase price includes repaying the debt on the plant and the associated forward electricity sale contracts (hedges).

NGC closed up 6c to 151 after the half billion dollar sale to Contact, while Contact was unchanged at 385 because despite the high price, it was considered a good purchase that would provide more flexibility.

Elsewhere on the market, Philip Hardie Boys of First NZ Capital said the healthy tourism numbers late last week helped boost Auckland International Airport and Air New Zealand, which closed up 6c at 545 and up 1c at 51 respectively.

Annual visitor numbers to New Zealand have broken the two million mark for the first time, with 2.12 million arrivals in the year ended November.

Turnover was light today, with 34.27 million stocks changing hands valued at $46.17 million.

"Movements have been exaggerated by light turnover, obviously," Mr Hardie Boys said.

Question marks remained over financial stock Tower, up 4c at 214, currently the focus of a mystery bidder who snapped up 3.6 per cent of the stock last week.

Telecom was up 1c at 459, The Warehouse lost 10c to 711, Tranz Rail rose 1c to 104, Baycorp Advantage shed 6c to 204, Carter Holt Harvey was down 1c at 173, and the Fisher & Paykel stocks both gained 20c, boosting Appliances to 1010 and Healthcare to 920.

There were 54 rises and 37 falls on the 134 stocks traded.

On Wall St on Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 147.07 points, or 1.8 per cent, at 8511.87; the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 11.6 points, or 1.3 per cent, to 895.85; and the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index was up 9.59 points, or 0.7 per cent, at 1363.69.

- NZPA