MARKET CLOSE: Hallenstein Glasson shares fall, NZX shares rise

Wednesday 26th January 2011

Shares in Hallenstein Glasson were knocked back hard on the New Zealand sharemarket after the clothing retailer said it expected half-year net profit to be between 13 and 18% lower than a year earlier.

The company said net profit for the six months to February 1 was projected to be between $7 million and $7.4 million, while sales were expected to be down 1.6% to $100.6 million.

Hallenstein Glasson (NZX: HLG ) shares closed down 24c, or 5.85%, at $3.86, their lowest level in more than four months.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed down 4.349 points, or 0.129%, at 3354.72. Turnover was worth $50.25 million on a day in which Australian investors were on holiday. There were 23 rises and 37 falls among the 103 stocks traded.

"Volume is okay today but it is still a quiet period for the market," said James Lee, head of institutional equities at First NZ Capital.

There was a lot of interest in Prime Minister John Key's signal today that the Government was considering using the ownership model of Air NZ, where the company is listed and the Crown owns as majority holding, for state-owned Mighty River Power, Meridian, Genesis and Solid Energy. It was also considering reducing its 75% holding in Air NZ, while maintaining majority ownership.

NZX (NZX: NZX ) rose 4c to $1.75 today. Lee said the Government announcement was the best news the market had had for a long time.

Air NZ (NZX: AIR ) shares fell 2c to $1.43. Lee said the market reaction was overdone and any selldown was a "long-dated process" and Air NZ should be trading in its merits.

The partial privatisations would bring big companies with stable earnings - that represented the gross domestic product of the country - to the market.

The energy sector currently made up about 15% of the market and investors would have more choice in energy investments when the state-owned enterprises were listed.

"I think the market will be happy to deploy capital there," Lee said.

Otherwise, Restaurant Brands (NZX: RBD ) dropped to $2.40, their lowest level in around six months, before making up some lost ground to close down 21 to $2.43, having also fallen 7c yesterday. The movement was queried by NZX.

Telecom (NZX: TEL ) was unchanged at $2.31 as was TrustPower (NZX: TPW ) on $7.22.

Cavalier Carpets (NZX: CAV ) fell 4c to $3.20, NZ Refining (NZX: NZR ) fell 5c to $4.54 and Contact Energy (NZX: CEN ) fell 3c to $6.22.

Sanford (NZX: SAN ) rose 15c to $4.90 after expressing optimism about its aquaculture ventures at its annual meeting.

Wellington Airport owner Infratil (NZX: IFT ) fell 3c to $1.89 on a day plans were revealed for the development of Paraparaumu airport.

The Warehouse (NZX: WHS ) rose 3c to $3.71, Nuplex (NZX: NPX ) rose 3c to $3.65 and Ryman Healthcare (NZX: RYM ) rose 1c to $2.37.

In the US, stocks staged a late comeback to end flat despite disappointing earnings from blue-chips including 3M and Johnson & Johnson.

Preliminary figures showed the Dow Jones industrial average dipped 0.03% to 11,977.19, the S&P 500 edged up 0.03% to 1291.18, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.1% to 2719.25.

NZPA

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