Shares in industrial resins and specialties group Nuplex Industries were down 3.2 percent in early trading, following yesterday's announcement the Securities Commission is filing civil proceedings against the company and six current and former directors.T
Shares in industrial resins and specialties group Nuplex Industries were down 3.2 percent in early trading, following yesterday's announcement the Securities Commission is filing civil proceedings against the company and six current and former directors.
The commission alleges Nuplex breached its continuous disclosure obligations under the NZX Listing Rules and the Securities Markets Act by failing to disclose to the market a breach of a banking covenant.
Nuplex denied the allegations and said the company and its directors would defend themselves vigorously.
Shares in Nuplex fell as much as 12c in early trading, but the decline eased to 10c within a few minutes of the market opening, with the stock price down to 2.9 percent to 337.
More broadly the New Zealand sharemarket rose early, with the benchmark NZX-50 index up 7.46 points to 3317.39 around 10.15am, after losing 4.2 points yesterday. The index continues to hover close to an 18-month high of 3327 points reached last Wednesday.
Shares rising early included battered market leader Telecom, which gained 3c to 223, having dropped as low as 211 last month.
Fishing company Sanford gained 5c to 450, Air New Zealand lifted 3c to 144, Infratil was up 2c to 179, and Fletcher Building was up 2c to 830.
Companies falling included Steel&Tube, down 4c to 276, Port of Tauranga down 3c to 700, Freightways down 3c to 317, and Pike River Coal down 2c to 110.
In the United States, stocks eked out a gain as investors looked ahead to earnings from big banks and tech bellwethers, even as disappointing revenue from Alcoa Inc acted as a headwind.
The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 0.1 percent at 11,019.42, the Standard&Poor's 500 Index ended up 0.1 percent at 1197.29, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.3 percent at 2465.99.
