NZ sharemarket firms as Fisher & Paykel races ahead

12.15 pm

The sharemarket bucked Wall Street's trend today as Fisher and Paykel zoomed ahead to new highs.

Fisher and Paykel raced up another 80c to hit a new all-time high of 1430 and has almost doubled in price from its 740 price on August 24 last year.

The company has rocketed up ahead of its split into a healthcare company due to list on the Nasdaq and a whiteware company.

Baycorp, another of this year's stars, was up 9c to 1360.

The NZSE-40 Capital Index was up 19.13 points to 2057.29 at 11.30am on turnover of $59.6 million.

UBS Warburg broker Campbell Stuart said the local market was simply responding to some good buying orders.

Christchurch-based health-products supplier Ebos Group gained 35c to 280 after it posted a record full year net profit of $5.19 million, up 22 per cent. Ebos declared a 7.5 cents per share dividend, up on 6.5cps last year, while earnings per share rose to 19.3cps from 15.8cps last year.

Telecom was up 3c at 508 on turnover of $6.9 million.

Auckland-based resin manufacturer Nuplex fell 8c to 323 after it reported its net profit fell 21 per cent to $13.2 million in the June year against last year's $16.7 million.

Chairman Fred Holland blamed the profit fall on the dramatic slowdown in construction in Australia which he said was now moving in a positive direction.

Fletcher Building continued to gain in the wake of its result on Wednesday. It was up another 3c to 265.

AMP was another to gain in the wake of its result. It was up 60c to 2370 after investors decided its lower six-month profit was not as bad as expected.

Sky City rose 15c to 1145.

Independent Newspapers continued a good recent run, rising 14c to 369.

Horizon fell 15c to 1135.

Natural Gas was up 5c to 101 on solid turnover.

TrustPower was up 5c to 326 after state-owned power companies Meridian Energy Ltd and Genesis Power Ltd denied they were preparing takeover offers for rival electricity firm TrustPower.

The New Zealand Business Times reported that Meridian and fellow electricity company Genesis Power had appointed investment banks to prepare takeover offers for the company which would value it at more than $900 million.

The Warehouse was down 8c to 584 despite being tipped as a major beneficiary of the New Zealand dollar's 8 per cent rise in six weeks.

Credit Suisse First Boston has upgraded its recommendation on the discount chain to a "buy".

"Based on our increasing confidence in the NZD/USD revaluation, combined with the margin leverage this should afford The Warehouse, our revised forecasts yield a valuation range between $6.22 and $6.37," CSFB said in a research note dated August 22.

The Warehouse shares closed up 11c at $5.90 yesterday.

There were 40 rises and 27 falls among the 110 stocks traded.

- NZPA