NZ market: Rises for SkyCity, Tower

File photo / NZH

The New Zealand sharemarket managed to post modest gains today as the Australian market traded lower.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 6.508 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 3262.354. As the New Zealand market closed the Australian market was down around a per cent.

"The local market held up well in spite of weakness offshore and considering a lack of domestic news to focus on," said Grant Williamson, director of Hamilton, Hindin, Greene.

He said one theme of the day was that investors were chasing yield on the expectation that interest rates will stay low.

SkyCity rose 4c to 292, Tower rose 2c to 186 and Vector rose 2c to 232. All are regarded as stocks with good yields.

Fletcher Building shares fell 7c to 828, having ended down 3c on Friday even though it was announced that subsidiary Fletcher Construction will manage building repairs for 50,000 houses damaged in the Canterbury earthquake. The stock had a big run higher after the September 4 earthquake.

Mr Williamson said investors may be thinking the work will be carried out over a period of time.

Oyster Bay Wines was untraded after majority owner Delegat's gave notice of a take over offer at $1.80 a share with a scrip alternative.

Mr Williamson said the stock had an asset backing of $3 a share in its last annual report so the offer looked to be good timing on Delegat's part. Delegat's shares rose 11c to 175.

Telecom was unchanged at 207 and Contact Energy rose 3c to 570.

Mainfreight rose 5c to 705 and Freightways rose 3c to 299. The Warehouse rose 4c to 394, Hellaby rose 1c to 195.

Tourism Holdings, which issued a profit warning late today, fell 3c to 88.

Auckland Airport rose 2c to 208 and Port of Tauranga rose 7c to 717.

Sanford, an exporter, rose 4c to 410 on a day the NZ dollar was weak.

Trustpower fell 2c to 730 and Nuplex fell 2c to 328.

In the US on Friday (local time), a surging quarter from Google sent the Nasdaq Composite Index up over 1 per cent, while uncertainty surrounding major banks' exposure to foreclosure losses dragged the Dow Jones industrial average lower.

General Electric's poor quarterly revenues underscored the economy's soft spots, and it was the Dow's biggest percentage loser with a 5.1 per cent drop.

The Dow dropped 0.3 per cent to 11,062.78, the Standard & Poor's 500 gained 0.2 per cent to 1176.19, and the Nasdaq rose 1.4 per cent to 2468.77.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.5 per cent, the S&P 500 added 0.9 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.8 per cent.

- NZPA