Modest early rise for NZ shares; Aussie stocks up

UPDATED 2.20pm: The Australian Stock Exchange has had a quiet start to the day, up 0.57% after more than two hours of trading.

The S&P/ASX 200 index has risen 24.4 points to 4,271.7 on trading volume of just under $A1.7 billion.

Retailer David Jones is among the biggest risers, up 3.36% (9Ac) to $A2.77, in contrast to fellow retailers Harvey Norman, which fell 2% (4Ac) to $A1.94 and JB Hi-Fi, which fell 1.6% (25Ac) to $A15.25.

Westpac is up slightly after yesterday’s quarterly profit announcement, rising 0.7% (14Ac) to $A20.39, while shopping mall owner Westfield is down 2% (16Ac) to $A7.98.

The New Zealand sharemarket has posted a small rise in early trade with the benchmark NZX50 index rising 0.3%, or 11 points, to 3284.

Trade was moderate with over $57 million changing hands. There were 37 rises and 16 falls.

The country's largest listed company, Fletcher Building, released its results today, saying net profit for the full year to June 30 was $283 million compared with $272 million in the previous year.

Net earnings before unusual items were $359 million compared with $301 million in the previous year. The construction giant will pay a final dividend of 17 cents a share versus 15 cents a year ago.

Auckland's Skycity also opened its books, reporting a record net profit this morning and saying momentum at its casino and hotel businesses is strong on the eve of the Rugby World Cup.

Underlying net profit for the casino and hotel operator rose 4% to 130.9 million for the year to June 30, on revenue of $877 million (up 4.5%).

But stripping out the $15 million write-down of the 50%-owned Christchurch Casino - affected by the Canterbury earthquakes - reported net profit rose $20.9 million or 20.5% to $123 million.

NBR staff
Wed, 17 Aug 2011

Categories

Analysis

Featured

Modest early rise for NZ shares; Aussie stocks up