MARKET CLOSE: Shares rise as Trade Me gains, F&P reaches record; A2 Milk falls

New Zealand shares rose as Trade Me Group extended its gains and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare reached a record high, while A2 Milk fell.

The S&P/NZX50 index rose 50.5 points, or 0.83 percent, to an all-time high of 6150.69. Within the index, 23 stocks rose, 16 fell and 11 were unchanged. Turnover was $179 million.

SkyCity Entertainment Group, the casino and hotel group, led the market, rising 4.1 percent to a four-month high of $4.37.

Trade Me rose 3.2 percent to $3.87. The shares have gained 27 percent from the 3 1/2-year low plumbed in August.

"It was just a case of being oversold in August, and having had a good steady recovery since then," said Robert Garden, investment adviser at Craig's Investment Partners. "Trade Me struggled some time ago when they were needing to reinvest a lot more money into the company to keep driving growth and they put a foot wrong with their strategy around the real estate side of the business. But they've turned things around with real estate and their general items business is ticking along reasonably well."

F&P Healthcare rose 1.8 percent to $8.56, an all-time high. Last Friday, the medical device maker increased first-half profit by 27 percent and affirmed its expectation for full-year earnings.

Vital Healthcare Property Trust was the worst performer on the day, dropping 1.6 percent to $1.89.

A2 Milk, which ended the day down 0.9 percent to $1.17, has continued its slide after the November run which saw the stock double in value on heightened Chinese demand for infant formula.

"There's a bit of excitement on the infant formula side of things, so the market's probably having a bit of a look forward to see if they can extrapolate that performance in Australia further out," Garden said.

Infratil was unchanged at $3.07, with the stock having risen 4.3 percent this year. The listed infrastructure investor has sold its advertising subsidiary iSite to Australian media company QMS Media for $49 million.

Delegat Group was unchanged at $5.35. New Zealand's largest listed wine company forecast record operating profit and case sales for 2016 on growth in the North American market and in the Asia-Pacific region.

Hellaby Holdings dropped 6.2 percent to $2.89. The diversified investment company lowered its estimate for annual earnings, citing variable economic and market conditions across its major markets.

Augusta Capital rose 1.6 percent to 97.5 cents. The listed property investor and fund manager has bought a $92.8 million property portfolio, which it plans to pour into a new unlisted fund for investors next year.

(BusinessDesk)