Scott Technology and Skellerup rise on day the tide turns

Photo / File

After 10 successive days of falls, the New Zealand sharemarket pulled out of its dive in late trading yesterday.

It finished up 6.14 points (a lift of 0.18 per cent) to 3392.02 points on the NZX-50, clawing back a little of the 92 points it lost during the sustained slump.

Among the 111 stocks traded, movements were evenly split with 53 rises and 53 falls as 31.6 million shares changed hands, valued at $83 million.

The biggest lift was notched up by Scott Technology, which rose 6c (4.55 per cent) to $1.38. Skellerup rose again, by 5c (4.24 per cent) to $1.23.

Infrastructure investor Infratil rose 6c (3.37 per cent) to $1.84 and the nation's biggest gold miner, Oceana Gold, lifted 7c (1.96 per cent) to $3.65 after the price of gold jumped to record highs.

More than nine million shares in Telecom were traded as it lifted 2c (1.81 per cent) to $2.53.5. Telecom plans to split Chorus, its local access infrastructure business, into a stand-alone listed company in order for it to participate in the Government's ultrafast broadband initiative.

Fletcher Building lifted 4c (0.5 per cent) to $8.04.

The biggest loser was exchange operator NZX, which fell 10c (4.5 per cent) to $2.12, after the company was forced to publish the results of an audit of its Clear grain exchange by KPMG, after apparently contradictory statements about the grain trading platform's performance. It fell 3.5 per cent on Monday.

Vector fell almost as much - in percentage terms - by 11c (4.35 per cent) to $2.42.

Pyne Gould Corp dropped 1c (2.78 per cent) to 35c and Kathmandu fell 6c (2.8 per cent) to $2.08.

Fletcher Building lifted 4c (0.5 per cent) to $8.04, Sky TV fell 2c (0.34 per cent) to $5.78 and Freightways was down 2c to $3.30.

Australian stocks closed flat with gains among energy companies and gold miners offset by losses in financials.

The benchmark ASX200 index slipped 3.9 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 4468.1, while the broader All Ordinaries index inched down 0.5 point to 4539.4.

Leading the gains was the energy sector, up 1 per cent, and gold stocks, which rose 0.9 per cent. Financials fell 0.5 per cent and materials shed 0.1 per cent.

In the United States investors were nervous about the stalemate in Washington and chances of the economy slipping into a recession only two years after the last one.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.8 per cent at 12,385.16, the S&P 500 Index fell 0.8 per cent to 1305.44 and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.9 per cent at 2765.11.

A sell-off in bank shares knocked European stocks down 1.7 per cent to their lowest levels since early December.

-NZPA