MARKET CLOSE: NZ sharemarket closes on positive note

Tuesday 15th February 2011

The New Zealand sharemarket closed on a positive note today, with Freightways proving to be the biggest gainer of the day.

Shares in the express mail company pushed to a one-year high this morning, gaining 9c in early trading, after the company yesterday reported a strong second quarter growth.

Freightways (NZX: FRE ) later added a further 1c to close at $3.37.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up six points or 0.196% to 3390.09 up from yesterday's close of 3384.38.

Sky City (NZX: SKC ) gained 3c to $3.30, Sky TV (NZX: SKT ) added 2c to $5.37, Telecom (NZX: TEL ) added 3c to $2.24 and New Zealand Oil and Gas (NZX: NZO ) gained 1c to $8.70.

Michael Hill (NZX: MHI ) gained 1c to 90c, The Warehouse (NZX: WHS ) slipped 1c to $3.54, and Kathmandu (NZX: KMD ) fell 3c to $2.13.

Infrastructure investment group Infratil (NZX: IFT ) added 2c, or just over 15, to $1.96, a day after Infratil Energy Australia disclosed the purchase of a generation site in New South Wales.

Melbourne-based OceanaGold (NZX: OGC ) shares added 33c to $3.75 after the company said today its proven and probable reserves in New Zealand had risen to 2.15 million ounces of gold at the end of December.

That was up from 1.92m ounces a year earlier, and after the company sold 268,000 ounces of gold from its New Zealand operations during 2010.

Stocks which slipped included fishing company Sanford (NZX: SAN ), falling 8c, or 1.59%, to $4.95, and Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ), which lost 2c to $8.21.

Contact Energy (NZX: CEN ) fell 2c to $6.22, Tower (NZX: TWR ) lost 1c to $1.98 and Air New Zealand (NZX: AIR ) remained unchanged at $1.39 after raising its international fares to cover rising jet fuel costs.

In the US, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.04% to 12,268.19, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.2% to 1332.32, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.3% to 2817.18.

NZPA

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