Xero leads shares higher amid light trading

Xero was the best performer, up 3 per cent to $30.90. Pictured is Businessman Rod Drury, chief executive of accounting software company Xero. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Turnover low as investors get ready for the festive season.

New Zealand shares gained in continued light trading, led higher by Xero and NZX.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 62.49 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 8235.09. Within the index, 29 stocks rose, 12 fell and nine were unchanged. Turnover was $138 million.

"The volumes have really gone into Christmas mode," said David Price, broker at Forsyth Barr. "Turnover is very light for a lot of the leaders, and some of the movements have been very pronounced but not on very big volumes. Even in the bigger, liquid stocks, they're getting skewed at the end. At the moment there's not much on the other side in some stocks so we are getting quite big movements in the matches."

Xero was the best performer, up 3 per cent to $30.90. NZX rose 2.8 per cent to $1.12 and Z Energy gained 2.6 per cent to $7.82.

"There's not a lot of company news, as you'd expect," Price said. "The market has had 11 months positive, it's been a pretty big year and people are quite happy — there's certainly an eye on the countdown to the summer holidays."

Summerset Group Holdings was the worst performer, down 1.3 per cent to $5.18, with Comvita falling 0.7 per cent to $7.45 and Sanford down 0.6 per cent to $8.25.

Outside the benchmark index, TIL Logistics Group closed at $2.75. The New Plymouth-based trucking and logistics company, formerly known as Transport Investments, joined the bourse on Thursday after completing a reverse listing through Bethunes Investments, although buyers and sellers didn't manage to meet on day one. The reverse listing placed an implied equity value on the company of $122.2m at the $1.50 share price, meaning yesterday's closing price was at an 83 per cent premium.

Fliway Group was unchanged at $1.21. Its shareholders have backed a $55.4m takeover offer from Singaporean logistics firm Yang Kee Logistics, which will see another company leave the NZX.

At a special meeting in Auckland yesterday, almost 99 per cent of votes cast were in favour of the $1.22-a-share offer, which was at the upper end of the valuation range by independent adviser KordaMentha. The transaction was via a scheme implementation agreement, meaning it needed at least 50 per cent of the total shares cast, and of that, 75 per cent had to be in favour. Almost 68 per cent of stock on issue was cast, including the holding of controlling shareholder and chief executive Duncan Hawkesby.