The New Zealand sharemarket ended with little changed today but selected stocks continued to advance and brokers noted lines of stock trading in Michael Hill and Pyne Gould Corp.
Pike River Coal advanced 7c to 116 to a five-month high and answered an NZX Regulation price query by saying it was complying with disclosure rules.
Air NZ advanced 3c to 145 to a two-year high and Infratil continued a run higher in the wake of its purchase of Shell downstream assets, rising 1c to 177.
The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 2.482 points, or 0.075 per cent, at 3310.247. Turnover was worth $77.47 million. There were 39 rises and 33 falls among the 112 stocks traded.
James Lee, head of institutional equities at First NZ Capital, said there were some good lines through the market. About 8 million Michael Hill shares traded at 68c, which was a reasonable discount to the 74c close today.
"They had a quarterly sales number which was roughly in line with expectations but we've seen a decent line cleared today," he said.
Also 8 million Pyne Gould Corp shares traded at 48c, and the shares closed up 1c at 48.
Telecom eased a cent to 221. Mr Lee said investors were focused on what role Telecom would have in government ultrafast broadbank plans, rather than the issues in the media this week.
Pike River Coal was rising in sympathy with corporate activity in the coal sector in Australia, while Air NZ had been well bid after a broker upgrade earlier this week. It said today it would be code sharing with Continental Airlines.
NZ Windfarms rose 2c to 25 in an ongoing positive reaction to the resolution of issues with its turbine supplier.
Contact Energy eased 2c to 641 and Fletcher Building rose 1c to 838.
Blis Technologies rose 0.7c to 10.5 and Scott Technology rose 2c to 128.
Sealegs fell 1c to 18 and Smartpay fell 0.1c to 3.9. Hellaby fell 4c to 162.
SkyCity fell 2c to 326 and Ebos fell 10c to 645.
In the United States, stocks gained after surprisingly strong March retail sales increased optimism that an economic recovery is on track.
Investors snapped up retailers' shares after top US chains reported a record year-over-year increase in same-store sales for March. The sales reflected a boost in consumer demand that some investors had doubted would materialise, with job growth still anaemic.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.3 per cent to 10,927.07, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.3 per cent to 1186.44, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.2 per cent to 2436.81.
- NZPA
NZ sharemarket closes slightly up
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