KEY POINTS:
The sharemarket rose slightly for a fifth straight session on mixed and fairly subdued trading.
The NZSX-50 index started strongly but faded in the afternoon, closing up 0.1 per cent or 4.4 points to 4155.00 on turnover worth $112m. Rising stocks outnumbered decliners 65 to 43 on 149 stocks traded.
"We've had a good period [in recent days] where things have recovered and it almost feels like everything from the credit distress has been forgotten," Campbell Stuart, managing director at UBS, said.
Among the leaders, Telecom was down 2c to 441, Fletcher Building rose 4c to 1190, and Contact eased 2c to 907. Fletcher shares were popular as the company announced it had tacit agreement to take a 20 per cent stake in a Southland MDF plant.
The Fisher & Paykel twins were both in the black today, with Appliances trading strongly, up 5c to 370 on $17 million worth of shares.
Healthcare rose 3c to 355, a day after it launched new products aimed at enlarging its share of the sleep apnoea treatment market.
Both stocks were likely to be benefiting from a lower kiwi dollar against both the Australian and US currencies, Mr Stuart added.
Other moves today included Air NZ up 5c to 215; Auckland Airport flat at 309; Hellaby down 8c to 250; and Infratil down 3c to 275.
Sky City slipped 7c to 440 and Sky TV put on 12c to 560, while Rakon added 8c to 483.
Delegat's shares remained unchanged at $2.64 as the company's managing director said it expected to double its profits in the next two years, and was on the lookout for local acquisitions.
NZ Oil and Gas was up 3c at 103 as investors shrugged off a disappointing offshore Taranaki drilling result yesterday.
- NZPA