NZX CLOSE: NZ shares gain; Contact, Restaurant Brands advance

Wednesday 16th December 2009

New Zealand shares rose, as Contact Energy Ltd’s latest monthly figures showed it stemmed its loss of customers and Restaurant Brands New Zealand Ltd. reported a jump in sales at its KFC outlets.

The NZX 50 Index gained 7, or 0.2%, to 3124.12, the second daily gain. Within the index, 17 stocks rose, 19 fell and 14 were unchanged. Turnover was a low-wattage $53.7 million.

Contact staged a late rally, rising 3.5% to $5.90 to lead the index higher. The number of electricity customers held unchanged at 478,500 in November from October, having slid from 508,500 in November 2008.

Restaurant Brands rose 1.9% to $1.63 after reporting a 4.7% gain in third-quarter sales and reiterating its forecast for full-year profit to jump 50%. Sales at its most-profitable KFC chicken outlets jumped 7.4% in the latest quarter.

“It was a phenomenal result from KFC,” said Stephen Wright, private client adviser at ASB Securities.

The trading halt on Allied Farmers shares was extended to allow the company to make a more extensive statement after investors in Hanover Finance voted to accept its offer of shares. Prior to being halted, Allied stock had traded at its record low of 19 cents.

“Some will figure they can do better if they can hold in there, others will be looking at immediately selling,” Wright said. “In the end they had no faith in the moratorium of Hanover or receivership.”

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which gets almost 80% of its revenue in U.S. dollars, gained 1.5% to $3.38 as the kiwi dollar fell. The currency recently traded at 71.77 U.S. cents, from 72.24 cents yesterday.

New Zealand Oil & Gas, which this week announced its 40% owned Albacore-1 well had no commercial oil, fell 1.8% to $1.63.

Warehouse Group, the biggest retailer on the NZX 50, gained 1% to $4.06 after figures yesterday showed eftpos and credit card transactions climbed 6.7% last week, based on data on the Paymark network, which processes about 75% of the traffic. The jump in transactions suggests consumers are starting to pick up the pace of spending in the run-up to Christmas.

Jeweller Michael Hill International climbed 1.6% to 65 cents. Pan Pacific Petroleum was the biggest decliner, falling 7.8% to 47 cents. NZ Farming Systems Uruguay fell 2.1% to 47 cents.

Businesswire.co.nz

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