Market close: shares rebound, Vital Healthcare up on small placement

New Zealand shares rallied back from a three-month low, as equity markets recovered from yesterday's selloff after better US economic figures. Vital Healthcare bounced back after it detailed a smaller rights offer than some had feared.

The NZX 50 Index rose 76.613 points, or 1.8 percent, to 4393.606. Within the index, 39 stocks rose, seven fell and four were unchanged. Turnover was about $120 million.

Vital Healthcare rose 9.3 percent to $1.35. The medical and healthcare property investor to announced details of a one-for-10 renounceable rights offer at $1.275 a share to raise $39.2 million. It flagged the equity raising yesterday without giving details and some investors had speculated it could be twice as large.

The stock sold off yesterday "just on the unknown", says James Lee, head of institutional equities at First NZ Capital. "But $39 million is a pretty small capital raise."

"Global markets recovered so the New Zealand market will follow that. You can see that right across Asia."

Retailer Kathmandu, among stocks sold off yesterday, rose 6.7 percent to $2.56. Hallenstein Glasson Holdings rose 4.4 percent to $4.80 and Warehouse Group gained 2.9 percent to $3.50.

Sky Network Television, which sold off as investors mulled the changing pay-per-view market after the emergence of an online football rival, gained 4.9 percent to $5.35.

Auckland International Airport rose 3.5 percent to $2.95 after reporting strong growth in monthly inbound tourists from China yesterday.

Mainfreight gained 0.8 percent to $10.70 after the logistics company confirmed plans to file a claim against the sellers of its 2011 Wim Bosman acquisition for as much as 120 million euros. The company has "notified the former owner that it intends to bring a claim" but has not started court proceedings.

Ebos Group gained 1.5 percent to $9.29 after its Onelink subsidiary was confirmed as the preferred respondent for government-owned Health Benefits to supply healthcare consumables.

OceanaGold plunged 11 percent to $1.34, its lowest level since September 2009, as the price of gold continued to fall, recently trading at $US1247.11 an ounce.

Fletcher Building, the biggest stock on the exchange, rose 2.6 percent to $8.41 ahead of a joint Christchurch City Council and central government announcement tomorrow detailing how they will share the cost of building some infrastructure and major projects in the devastated city.

Steel & Tube rose 2.1 percent to $2.41.

Telecom was up 3.4 percent to $2.28.

(BusinessDesk)