Market close: shares buoyant ahead of MRP offer docs unveiling

New Zealand shares rose against an Australian downtrend for the second day in a row, as the market appeared to reward Restaurant Brands for the Carl's Jr rollout and 440,000 would-be Kiwi investors who will see the Mighty River Power offer documents tomorrow.

The NZX50 rose 17.31 points, or 0.39 percent, to 4430.16. Among the top 50 stocks, 25 rose, 13 fell, and 12 were unchanged. Turnover was $150.21 million.

The ministers of finance and state-owned enterprises will launch the offer documents for the first initial public offering of a government business since the Contact Energy IPO in 1999, the sale of up to 49 percent of electricity company Mighty River Power.

Paul Harrison, who manages $620 million of funds at BT Funds Management in Auckland, says the prospectus would improve pricing calculations by providing "confirmation and better numbers". Comparison with of its listed rival, Contact Energy, would improve.

Contact shares have fallen this week, amid concerns about the possible closure of the Tiwai Pt aluminium smelter, owned by Rio Tinto subsidiary Pacific Aluminium. However, Contact was up 0.18 percent on the last week's trading, at $5.45. Smelter issues were "built in" already to the Contact share price, Mr Harrison says.

The 42-year-old smelter uses about one-seventh of New Zealand's total electricity production and is state-owned Meridian Energy's biggest customer.

Meanwhile, Restaurant Brands was the star performer in the NZX50, up 2.04 percent to $2.83, despite a 4.5 percent drop in earnings for the year to February 28. That was partly thanks to writing off costs associated with the successful launch of the Carl's Jr fast food brand in New Zealand.

While the latest result "wasn't entirely spectacular, the market is starting to price in the growth profile of that business [Carl Jr's]" and the hope it could replicate the earnings achieved with the KFC brand, he says.

He noted Restaurant Brands also has rights to Carl's Jr in Australia, although an earlier unsuccessful foray into Victoria with Pizza Hut would make investors cautious.

New Zealand Oil & Gas also had a big day, up 3.49 percent at the close, at 86 cents.

Fonterra Shareholders Fund units were off 1.2 percent at $7.47 after re-rating on much stronger global dairy prices in recent auctions.

(BusinessDesk)