JASON KRUPP
New Zealand shares held on to their gains in early trade, the bourse buoyed by dual-listed shares with Australia’s stock market opening in the black despite weaker international leads. Heartland New Zealand led gainers, and Ryman Healthcare fell.
The NZX 50 Index rose 3.82 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 3477.32. The New Zealand dollar recently traded at US81.86 cents, down from US82.06c at 8am, but unchanged versus 5pm yesterday.
Australia’s SP/ASX 200 Index joined the firmer New Zealand open, gaining 0.3 per cent to 4312.9 at the start of the trading day.
Dual-listed financial and telecommunication shares saw robust demand in the morning session, with ANZ Banking Group gaining 2.1 per cent to $29.20, and wealth manager AMP up 1.5 per cent.
Telstra rose 0.5 per cent to $4.25, and Westpac was unchanged $27.68. Between the four companies, they accounted for almost 10 per cent of trading volumes so far.
Heartland New Zealand was the best performing stock on the exchange, gaining 7.7 per cent to 56c. The company has recently attracted investor attention after its third quarter trading update showed revenue and loan book growth.
Trade Me, the online auction site, rose 1.2 per cent to $3.51. The company recently announced it would start selling US brands through it site in a deal with middleman ChannelAdviser, with sales exempt from GST charges.
Fletcher Building, the country’s biggest construction firm, rose 1.1 per cent to $6.27 amid bets the Christchurch rebuild is set to kick of shortly.
On the wider exchange, governance software developer Diligent Board Member Services rose 5.7 per cent to $3.70 after it reported a 176 per cent jump in first quarter revenue to $8.214m versus the same period last year.
Pyne Gould, the financial services company, rose 8.8 per cent 37c with investors appearing to bulk up on the stock amid anticipation of a payout from its recent share sale.
Ryman Healthcare, the retirement village operator, paced decliners as of noon. The stock fell 1.6 per cent to $3.10 as investors continued to book profits in the wake of its recent surge, when it set a fresh historic high of $3.21.
Guinness Peat Group, the investment holding company, fell 1 per cent to 50c. The company last night announced it had exited its investment in Ashley House, a UK-based health and social care property company.
The investment proved a major underperformer for GPG, with the share price declining 96 per cent over a 5-year period.
Chorus, the telephone network company that won the lion’s share of the Government’s ultrafast broadband project, fell 0.3 per cent to $3.42.
The company announced today that it had been tapped to rollout the second phase the of the Government’s rural broadband initiative.
– © Fairfax NZ News
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