NZX CLOSE: NZX 50 gains; Wrightson jumps as Agria takes bite

Friday 16th October 2009

New Zealand shares rose to a 12-month high as China’s Agria said it would become a shareholder of PGG Wrightson and Restaurant Brands posted a surge in profit by avoiding the previous year’s charges and lifting KFC sales.

The NZX 50 Index rose 15.91, or 0.5%, to 3207.20, the highest close in more than a year. Within the index, 19 stocks rose, 22 fell and nine were unchanged. Turnover was about $95 million.

Wrightson surged 20% to 78 cents after China’s Agria, a seed and animal services company that trades on the NYSE, said it would buy the equivalent of 13% of Wrightson’s existing share capital at 88 cent a share as part of a cooperation agreement.

Silver Fern Farms, the meat cooperative that’s going public, took advantage of the news to offload its 10 million shares of Wrightson, which it got as part settlement of their failed merger.

Restaurant Brands New Zealand Ltd., which holds the franchise for KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks, rose 6.8% to $1.42 after reporting a 240% increase in first-half profit on rising sales of chicken and the impact of impairment charges a year earlier. The shares have soared 111% in the past 12 months.

Sky Network Television rose 1.4% to $4.95 as the kiwi dollar held around 74.5 U.S. cents. A high currency reduces the pay-TV operator’s U.S. dollar costs for programming and equipment.

Sanford Ltd., a fish exporter, fell 2% to $4.80, the lowest in more than four months. A strong currency erodes the value of offshore revenue.

Pan Pacific Petroleum fell 5.4% to 53 cents and has dropped in three of the past four days, following its announcement that it’s likely to miss out on a share in an offshore Vietnam prospect because another part exercised pre-emptive rights.

Guinness Peat Group fell 1.1% to 88 cents. The investment group today raised its offer for Australian financial services group MMC Contrarian it doesn’t already own to 40 Australian cents from 38 cents and said the new price is final.

Cavalier Corp., the carpet maker, climbed 1.6% to $2.50 after the BNZ Capital-Business NZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) showed the first overall expansion in 19 months, matching global recovery indications. Steel & Tube Holdings, which supplies steel building materials, fell 2.6% to $3.02.

Businesswire.co.nz

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