18 Feb 2011

NZ market rises

6:08 pm on 18 February 2011

The NZX 50 index is up 17 points at 3,412 on turnover of $65 million, at close of trading on Friday.

Fletcher Building rose 5 cents to $8.39 after announcing a two-week extension of its takeover offer for the the Australian building and plumbing supplies company, Crane.

Contact Energy fell 1 cent to $6.21 and Telecom 3 cents to $2.20.

Sky Television was up 8 cents to $5.49 after announcing its half year profits had jumped by almost 20%. Sky City Entertainment fell 1 cent to $3.30.

OceanaGold went up by 10 cents to $4.10, after reporting a decline in full year profit, despite record gold sales.

Postie Plus was up 1 cent to 28 cents, after reporting half year sales had risen almost 5%.

New Zealand Refining was down 18 cents to $4.82 after announcing on Thursday it is considering investing up to half a billion dollars to replace its ageing petrol-making plant.

Vector fell 1 cent to $2.53 after it was yesterday named as a preferred bidder to roll out ultra-fast broadband in Auckland.

The Warehouse was up 1 cent to $3.55, while Pumpkin Patch was unchanged at $1.45.

In currency markets at 5pm, the NZ dollar was at 76.02 US, 75.09 Australian, 46.97 pence, 63.29 yen, and 0.5582 euro. The TWI stood at 67.64.