The New Zealand sharemarket rose modestly today, outperforming many markets in Asia, though volume was thin.The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 14.2 points, or 0.4%, at 3301.661. Turnover was worth $70.2 million. There were 41 rises and 31 falls among th
The New Zealand sharemarket rose modestly today, outperforming many markets in Asia, though volume was thin.
The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 14.2 points, or 0.4%, at 3301.661. Turnover was worth $70.2 million. There were 41 rises and 31 falls among the 113 stocks traded.
"Our market had a pretty reasonable day given overseas markets were pretty mixed," said Ross Cuthbert, adviser at Craigs Investment Partners. "Volume wasn't massive; it was a Friday sort of volume."
Telecom gained 1c early to $2.19, adding to its 3c gain yesterday.
Fletcher Building closed up 1c at $8.44 but traded as low as $8.39.
Mr Cuthbert said yesterday's announcement of job losses and a production reduction in its Australian insulation business was not material and did not alter the earnings outlook.
Turners Auctions rose 14c, or 9.6%, to $1.60, though it was on small turnover. The company told shareholders at its annual meeting yesterday that it was well placed for a recovery but the used vehicle market remained challenging.
NZ Refining fell 6c to $3.75 after easily seeing off a challenge from a shareholder at its annual meeting yesterday.
Allied Farmers rose 0.3c to 8.6c, a move put down to interest from speculative investors.
AMP Office Trust rose 1c to 75c after reporting a higher distributable nine-month profit. Property companies continue to wait to see what the government has decided to do on tax issues in the May budget.
Property for Industry rose 3c to $1.18, and ING Property Trust rose 1c to 75c.
Nuplex rose 10c to $3.36, Contact Energy rose 4c to $6.22, SkyCity rose 5c to $3.28 and Restaurant Brands rose 4c to $2.31.
NZOG rose 2c to $1.54. OceanaGold was unchanged at $3.50.
Auckland Airport rose 2c to $2.10 and Air NZ was unchanged at $1.37.
Retailer Kirkcaldie&Stains was untraded on $2.85, after reporting first half net profit up 50.4% to $725,000, despite a 4.2% fall in revenues to $21.96 million.
Wall Street action
In the US, stocks staged a late-day comeback as strong quarterly profits from consumer bellwethers such as Starbucks outweighed worries about Greece's shaky finances.
First-quarter earnings are on track to set a record for the percentage of companies beating estimates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.1% to 11,134.29, the S&P 500 Index rose 0.2% to 1208.67 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.6% to 2519.07.
