KEY POINTS:
Jeweller Michael Hill was a shining exception on a generally flat sharemarket, with several stocks weakened by dividend payouts.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index crept into positive territory, up 6.04 points or 0.14 per cent to 4168.72. There were 50 rises and 52 falls on 141 stocks traded on total turnover of $68 million.
Today the market continued to range trade, with "very selective equity participation," ABN Amro Craigs retail adviser Nigel Scott said.
He also felt the Rabobank bond issue, raised to $900m, would suck some money out of the financial sector.
"There are a couple of issues that have matured in the fixed interest market, there's probably some money sitting in the sidelines from equities and also money that's come out of financial companies, and also we've had the deferral of the Yellow Pages (bond issue)."
He expected the sharemarket to "react quite aggressively to any adverse news but whether it has liquidity attached to that adverse news is always going to be the thing".
Brokers said Telecom and Infratil were the busiest stocks with Telecom up 2c to 437 following the resignation of senior manager Kevin Kenrick.
Infratil, which is in the middle of a rights issue, was also up 2c to 282 on solid turnover worth $4m.
Another strong performer was Michael Hill, up 40c to a year high of 1090, although turnover in the tightly-held stock was fairly low.
Michael Hill, which is due for a 10:1 share split on October 29, was enjoying a strong run after its result and ahead of its share split, Mr Scott noted.
Pumpkin Patch - which today reported a 3.2 per cent fall in annual net profit to $27.6 million - added 5c to 330.
The share price has fallen substantially since June when it was trading around 435, and today the company said that while it was still trading strongly in Australia and New Zealand, the cost of store rollouts and quota payments in the US and Britain had affected its bottom line.
Other risers today included Ebos up 16c or 3.3 per cent to 501, Metlifecare up 15c to 750 on thin trading, Methven up 10c or 4 per cent to 250, Tower up 5c to 230, Contact Energy up 4c to 901 and PGG Wrightson up 4c to 182.
Fletcher Building rose 15c to 1214 as it approached a 23c dividend payout at the end of the week, and the Warehouse was up 5c to 600 following a 1.8 per cent increase in annual net profit announced on Friday.
Falls included Sky TV down 10c to 550, Turners Auctions down 10c to 106 on low volume, and Auckland Airport down 6c to 305.
Ex-dividend stocks included Air NZ down 5c to 224 (5c div), Freightways off 5c to 375 on a 9c dividend, and AMP down 55c to 1200 on a 22c dividend.
- NZPA