NZ stocks: TrustPower hogs the limelight

The sharemarket had few surprises for the start of the week, with typically small turnover and little market-moving news.

The NZSE-40 capital index closed down 8.68 points, or 0.42 per cent, at 2041.32.

Turnover was light, with 18.01 million stocks, valued at $52.84 million, changing hands.

The main news of the day centred on TrustPower. American utilities giant Alliant and its ally Infratil snapped up about 2.3 million shares, or 1.25 per cent of the company, at $3.65 a share.

"They had filed notice of a restricted transfer some weeks ago so there was no surprise - they had the ability to do it before the change in the takeover laws come into effect on July 1," James Snell of Credit Suisse First Boston said.

He said the timing was "a bit of a surprise" because some retail electricity stocks were going through large downgrades at the moment.

"Obviously those wholesale electricity prices are remaining pretty high at peak times."

TrustPower remained up 50c at $3.65 at the close.

The two other major TrustPower shareholders, the Australian Gas Light Co, which holds 20.5 per cent, and the Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust, which holds 22.7 per cent, have posted similar notices.

The consumer trust said before the market closed yesterday that it would not sell any of its stake.

AGL's other big New Zealand holding, Natural Gas Corp, fell 4c to 87c. On Friday, AGL had to stump up an emergency bailout after NGC had warned that it expected a $280 million to $310 million loss for the June year, including a number of significant one-off losses.

Elsewhere in the sector, generator Contact Energy was up 6c at $2.90 on thin volume, while utility network company UnitedNetworks was up 5c at $8.60. Infratil lost 4c to $1.37.

Air New Zealand freely held B shares rose 6c to $1.41. Behind the rise were reports that Air New Zealand might sell its stake in Ansett to Singapore Airlines if the Government decides not to raise the 25 per cent ownership cap on the airline.

Agrichemicals manufacturer Nufarm fell 4c to $3.79 after announcing it will de-list from the NZSE to improve the liquidity of its primary listing across the Tasman.

Fisher & Paykel was down 15c at $11.55, but was actually in positive territory as it went ex-dividend 18c, plus imputation credits, yesterday.

Telecom was down 8c at $5.45, Telstra shed 4c to $6.85 and discount retailer The Warehouse lost 7c to $5.48.

Listed financial services company Dorchester Pacific rose 5c to $1.15 after announcing it had bought the pension fund Save & Invest for $2.8 million in cash.

- NZPA