Market Close: Stocks gain; Goodman Fielder, Telecom rise

Monday 12th January 2009

New Zealand stocks rose, nudging the NZX 50 Index higher for a second day, after Telecom Corp. closed down its unprofitable online shopping site and Goodman Fielder reiterated its forecast for profit to decline.

The NZX 50 fell 10.86, or 0.4%, to 2768.27. Within the index, 23 stocks rose, 13 fell and 14 were unchanged. Turnover was NZ$35.6 million, according to Reuters data.

Telecom rose 2.5% to NZ$2.47 after announcing the end of Ferrit, its three-year foray into an online retailing platform. Tough retail conditions mean the business wouldn’t break even for “a number of years,” said Alan Gourdie, Telecom Retail chief executive.

Goodman Fielder, Australia’s biggest foodmaker, rose 4.9% to NZ$1.72, leading the NZX 50 higher, after confirming first-half profit fell 15% because of a delay in recouping rising ingredient costs. Its ASX stock rose 3.7% to A$1.44.

Investors will get a snapshot of the state of business sentiment tomorrow, with the release of the Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion for the fourth quarter, with some economists predicting extended gloom from companies.

Since the third-quarter survey “the reality of the global economic recession has become all the more obvious, as evidenced by the massive downgrades in consensus growth forecasts in the latter months of last year,” said Mark Walton, markets economist at Bank of New Zealand.

“New Zealand firms’ expectations of own activity in coming months, and their views of the business situation more generally, will surely be curtailed in similar fashion,” he said.

Telstra Corp.’s New Zealand shares fell 4.5% to NZ$4.28. Australia’s biggest phone company last week said it may lose as much as A$2 billion in sales after its bid to build that nation’s high-speed Internet network was disqualified by the government.

Medical supplies company Ebos Group fell 2.3% to NZ$4.20 and discount retailer Warehouse Group declined 2.2% to NZ$3.55.

Contact Energy, the biggest utility on the NZX 50, declined 1.6% to NZ$7.33. Among gainers, children’s clothing chain Pumpkin Patch rose 3.1% to NZ$1 and Michael Hill International gained 3.7% to 56 cents.

In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 1.4% to 3683.3 after an ANZ Bank report showed job vacancies plunged last month while Rio Tinto shelved an A$2.15 billion iron ore mine expansion in Brazil because of a drop in demand.

Rio fell 5.9% to A$31.42 and BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, fell 3.1% to A$30.71.

Building supplies company James Hardie Industries fell 1.8% to A$4.47 amid concern about a prolonged economic slump in the U.S., its biggest market.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index slipped 0.5% to 8836.8 in early afternoon trading. Mazda Motors led the decline, sliding 7.7%.

(Businesswire.co.nz)

NZX Top 50
Last updated: 12/01/2009 5:10pm

AIA	1.71	0.00
AIR	0.93	0.00
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ANZ	18.00	0.00
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CAV	1.89	+0.01
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EBO	4.20	-0.10
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TEL	2.47	+0.06
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