NZ stocks: Surprise moves spice up dull day

The sharemarket bobbed about in positive territory yesterday, unable to find direction from mixed signals sent by overseas markets.

The NZSE-40 capital index ended up 3.14 points, or 0.15 per cent, at 2068.75.

Turnover was light, with 27.16 million stocks valued at $53.48 million.

"We had an up day with just a little bit of flow-through from what was not a bad day for the [overseas] markets on Friday ... At the end of the day it's a mixed market so stocks are continuing to trade on any specific company news," Peter Stokes of JB Were said.

"Given there is no real general direction, and the US is sending out some confusing signals with big job losses but better gross domestic product figures than expected, which is something we've seen over the last week or so ... our stocks are trading in a narrow channel," he said.

The main mover was drink-maker Frucor, which downgraded its net profit by $6 million to $11.4 million, surprising the market and losing 53c to $1.70 in the process.

The other major news of the day was INL's announcement that it planned to buy the Todd family's 11 per cent holding in Sky TV. INL also issued a notice of restricted transfer to buy a further 5.18 per cent of Sky from the public via an on-market stand that would bring its total holding to 66.25 per cent. Sky TV closed up 11c at $3.55.

"The market, at $3.55, is suggesting that the price would have to be at the upper end of the indicative range, which would make a lot of sense," Mr Stokes said.

Telecom ended up 4c at $6.09, also topping turnover with $25.21 million, after analysts predicted the telco would announce a net profit of around $150 million for the third quarter on Friday, down $55 million on the previous March quarter.

Telstra gained 5c to $8.15 andTranz Rail rose 7c to $3.82 on very light turnover.

Montana, in which Peter Masfen is a substantial shareholder, jumped 13c at $4.28 after the NZSE standing committee said that a decision on whether Lion Nathan's purchase of Montana shares was premature was still more than a month away.

The possibility of Allied Domecq still being in play for the whole company was seen as one reason for the price rise.

Cedenco Foods was up 5c at $1.47 after hinting at record earnings this financial year.

Nufarm lost 10c to $3.65 after announcing it bought American fungicide company Agtrol International for an unspecified sum.

- NZPA