Market close: shares gain, led by Xero, NZX - Freightways falls

New Zealand shares rose as most equity markets edged up ahead of the US Independence Day holiday on signs of American employment growth. Xero rose to a new record and NZX climbed but Freightways fell after a profit warning.

The NZX 50 Index rose 8.196 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4458.952. Within the index, 23 stocks rose, 17 fell and 10 were unchanged. Turnover was $119 million.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3 percent after the ADP National Employment Report showed private payrolls rose 188,000 in June, beating forecasts for a gain of 160,000 jobs. The main US non-farm payrolls data is out on Friday.

Xero climbed 4.4 percent to $17.49, pushing the cloud-based accounting company's market value to $2.1 billion. The stock has soared 120 percent this year as the company focuses on rapid sales growth in lieu of immediate profits.

NZX, the stock exchange operator, gained 2.3 percent to $1.33 and Contact Energy rose 1.9 percent to $5.27.

"Markets regained some ground in US trade with event risk ramping up as we approach the business end of the week," Stan Shamu, strategist at IG, says in a note. "Sentiment picked up on the back of a much better than expected ADP non-farm employment change print."

Chorus, the network company spun off from Telecom in 2011, rose 1.6 percent to $2.58 as improved risk sentiment bolstered the appeal of stocks offering relatively high dividend yields. At today's price Chorus has a forecast dividend yield of 10 percent.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which gets more than 50 percent of its sales in US dollars, as the kiwi held near a 12-month low against the greenback.

Fonterra Shareholders' Fund rose 0.7 percent to $7.35 after the company said it had been contacted by the China National Development and Reform Commission as part of an investigation into milk powder prices.

Earlier this week, Chinese publication the People's Daily reported the NDRC was looking at major foreign companies selling milk powder into China over price manipulation.

Fletcher Building rose 0.8 percent to $8.49.

Freightways, the courier and data management company, dropped 6.7 percent to $4.21 after saying profit before one-time items rose 6 percent in 2013 and similar profit growth is expected in 2014, lagging analyst estimates of 10 percent growth in the coming year.

Sky Network Television fell 0.9 percent to $5.35 after Telecom said it was hoping to drive customers on to faster broadband services with a deal to offer discounted online access to the English Premier League football. The deal is another sign Sky TV's grip on the pay-per-view market may be weakening.

Telecom fell 0.4 percent to $2.25.

(BusinessDesk)