The sharemarket edged ahead yesterday in quiet trading with capital raisings and fixed-interest offerings said to be continuing to soak up demand.
The NZX-50 index closed up 7.78 points, or 0.25 per cent, at 3115.39. Turnover was $79 million. There were 36 rises and 45 falls among the 116 stocks traded.
"New Zealand is just quiet. I think a lot of the money is getting channelled to the IPOs and fixed-interest new issues that are on the go," said Stuart Hardie, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.
"Once they are wrapped up we'll pull down the shutters and that will be the end of the year, I would say."
PGG Wrightson, which is in the middle of a large capital raising, rose 1c to 65c. Allied Farmers was unchanged at 31c after Hanover Finance said it was unaware of any other offers for it and was committed to presenting the Allied offer to investors.
Among the leaders, Fletcher Building was up 10c to $7.75, Telecom was down 2c at $2.44 and Contact Energy was up 10c to $6.
Sanford rose 5c to $4.80 ahead of its annual report, which showed a difficult second half.
Mainfreight lost 10c to $5.50, while Steel & Tube dropped 9c to $2.85. Port of Tauranga fell 3c to $7.05 and SkyCity was unchanged at $3.34. Sky TV fell 6c to $4.60.
GPG rose 1c to 81c and TrustPower rose 5c to $7.50.
In the United States, stocks slipped on lacklustre economic data in a session marked by low volume and choppy trading ahead of the Thanksgiving Day holiday.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.16 per cent at 10,433.71, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 0.05 per cent to 1105.65, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.31 per cent to close at 2169.18. NZPA
Market quiet as offerings soak up demand
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