The New Zealand sharemarket managed to post modest gains today as the Australian market traded lower.The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 6.508 points, or 0.2%, at 3262.354. As the New Zealand market closed the Australian market was down around 1%."T
The New Zealand sharemarket managed to post modest gains today as the Australian market traded lower.
The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 6.508 points, or 0.2%, at 3262.354. As the New Zealand market closed the Australian market was down around 1%.
"The local market held up well in spite of weakness offshore and considering a lack of domestic news to focus on," said Grant Williamson, director of Hamilton Hindin Greene.
He said one theme of the day was that investors were chasing yield on the expectation that interest rates will stay low.
SkyCity rose 4c to 292, Tower rose 2c to 186 and Vector rose 2c to 232. All are regarded as stocks with good yields.
Fletcher Building shares fell 7c to 828, having ended down 3c on Friday even though it was announced that subsidiary Fletcher Construction will manage building repairs for 50,000 houses damaged in the Canterbury earthquake.
The stock had a big run higher after the September 4 earthquake.
Mr Williamson said investors may be thinking the work will be carried out over a period of time.
Oyster Bay Wines was untraded after majority owner Delegat's gave notice of a take over offer at $1.80 a share with a scrip alternative.
Mr Williamson said the stock had an asset backing of $3 a share in its last annual report so the offer looked to be good timing on Delegat's part. Delegat's shares rose 11c to 175.
Telecom was unchanged at 207 and Contact Energy rose 3c to 570.
Mainfreight rose 5c to 705 and Freightways rose 3c to 299. The Warehouse rose 4c to 394, Hellaby rose 1c to 195.
Tourism Holdings, which issued a profit warning late today, fell 3c to 88.
Auckland Airport rose 2c to 208 and Port of Tauranga rose 7c to 717.
Sanford, an exporter, rose 4c to 410 on a day the NZ dollar was weak.
Trustpower fell 2c to 730 and Nuplex fell 2c to 328.
Sign up to get the latest stories and insights delivered to your inbox – free, every day.
