NZ sharemarket rises

The New Zealand sharemarket rose today and turnover was boosted by a big sale of PGG Wrightson shares by Rural Portfolio Investments Securities Ltd.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 11.863 points, or 0.36 per cent, at 3304.969. Turnover was worth $136.2 million of which $27.89m was in PGG Wrightson shares.

A notice to NZX said 48.46 million PGG Wrightson shares were sold at 56. The shares closed up 3c at 59.

Pike River Coal rose 4c to 114 after saying it has successfully placed $10m of shares as part of its $50m capital raising.

"The institutional placement was done successfully and the market received news of the rights issue relatively well," said Stephen Wright at ASB Securities.

There were 55 rises and 31 falls among the 123 stock traded today.

Air NZ was unchanged at 138 on a day in which disrupted services to Europe resumed.

Among the leaders Telecom was unchanged at 215, Contact Energy fell 11c to 624 and Fletcher Building rose 3c to 852. TrustPower fell 3c to 747 and Auckland Airport eased 1c to 202.

NZ Refining, which has a shareholder meeting tomorrow, eased 3c to 380.

Nuplex added another cent to 323 to continue a recovery after an aggressive sell off. Sky City added 1c to 322, and NZ Oil & Gas picked up 2c to 156.

Allied Farmers rose 0.9c to 6.9 and NZ Farming Systems Uruguay fell 1c to 38.

APN News rose 19c to 306. CER Group rose 0.2c to 1.2c after announcing another sale agreement for a business unit. Postie Plus Group rose 3c to 37 and Tag Pacific fell 5c to 25.

In the United States stocks rose as oil prices lifted energy shares and investors were upbeat about the overall profits recovery, even as some high-profile results fell short of lofty expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 0.2 per cent to 11,117.06, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.8 per cent to 1207.17, and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.8 per cent to 2500.31.

- NZPA