Investors keen on Sky TV after strong result

NZPA

Friday 26th August 2011

Amid general negative sentiment, investors pushed up the price of Sky TV shares after the company reported a strong performance.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 7.58 points to 3294, after gaining 14.1 points yesterday.

Sky TV shares were up 5c to 580 after the company said it lifted full year net profit 17 percent to $120 million, and declared a special dividend of 25c per share.

Abano Healthcare was up 15c to 440, Nuplex lifted 3c to 267, and Telecom was up 0.5c to 272.5.

Cavalier Corp fell 8c to 332, Fletcher Building dropped 6c to 779, Contact Energy fell 4c to 527, Sky City lost 3c to 345, and Mainfreight dropped 2c to 970.

In the United States, stocks fell as investors raised cash ahead of a critical speech from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, hoping he will give them a clearer picture of the Fed's plans for the struggling US economy.

Jitters over a sharp drop in German stocks and a report showing continued US job market weakness helped fuel the selling.

Stocks had opened higher after Bank of America said Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway would be taking a $US5 billion stake in the bank, whose shares had fallen to two-year lows earlier this week.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1.5 percent to 11,149.82, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 1.6 percent to 1159.27, and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 2 percent to 2419.63.

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