MARKET CLOSE: NZ shares climb; Cavalier jumps, Hallenstein gains

Friday 18th December 2009

New Zealand shares rose for the third day in four amid signs consumer confidence is holding up in the peak Christmas period. Hallenstein Glasson Holdings led advances among retailers and carpet-maker Cavalier Corp. jumped.

The NZX 50 Index climbed 31.313, or 1%, to 3154.229. Within the index, 26 stocks gained, 12 fell and 12 were unchanged. Turnover was $91.8 million.

Hallenstein rose 3.5% to $3.26 a day after chairman Warren Bell told shareholders that the clothing chain may “comfortably” exceed 2009 annual profit provided the peak Christmas sales period tracks as expected. So far this fiscal year, trading has been about 5% ahead of the same year-earlier period.

New Zealand consumer confidence fell for a second month in December, while remaining at an elevated level, according to the ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence poll. Confidence slipped 2.9 points to 118.6 this month, having peaked in October at 125.9. Confidence sank below the key benchmark level of 100 in February and March.

Jeweller Michael Hill International rose 4.7% to 67 cents. Cavalier rose 9.8% to $2.80, with 34,000 shares changing hands.

Restaurant Brands, the fast-food operator, rose 3.1% to $1.66. On Wednesday, the company said third-quarter sales rose 4.7% and reiterated its forecast for annual profit to jump 50%.Warehouse Group dipped about 2% to $4.02.

Cynotech Holdings was last at 11.5 cents. Cynotech Securities, a company associated with major shareholder Allan Hawkins, made an offer to acquire the company in exchange for preference shares in Cynotech Securities that pay 8% annual interest. Each CSGL preference share has an attributed value of 13.5 cents, the company said in a statement today.

Allied Farmers, the rural and financial services group, fell 1.3% to 14 cents, a new record low. The company today said it had satisfied key conditions of its proposal to acquire Hanover Finance’s assets. Investors in Hanover and United Finance this week agreed to accept 1.9 billion Allied shares for their financial assets. Allied current has about 38 million shares on issue.

Auckland International Airport climbed 1.6% to $1.92 after the nation’s busiest gateway was raised to ‘outperform’ from ‘market perform’ by ASB Securities analyst Florian Burch. The analyst raised his forecast for 2010 profit to $99.8 million from $95.1 million, according to the ShareChat website.

Telstra Corp., Australia’s biggest phone company, declined 2.7% to $4.31 on the NZX after cutting its sales forecast for fiscal 2010, citing a strong currency, rivalry for mobile phone services and a greater take-up of wireless-only homes. “Following the continuation of trends seen in the second half of fiscal 2009, Telstra now expects sales revenue to be flattish compared to fiscal year 2009,” the company said in a statement today.

Telecom Corp., New Zealand’s biggest phone company, gained 4.2% to $2.49.

The New Zealand government's ultra-fast broadband policy has raised the significance of regulatory risks for Telecom, Fitch Ratings said in a report today. Telecom scored 6.0 out of a possible 7.0 on Fitch's regulatory risk scorecard, 0.5 points below Telstra.

NZ Refining tumbled 7.7% to $3.60, adding to its 3.7% slide yesterday, when the nation’s only oil refinery forecast profit of $10 million to $20 million this calendar year and said its gross refining margin shrank to US$1.16 in September and October from US$9.35 at the beginning of the year. “There remains considerable uncertainty with respect to our final result", the company said.

ING Medical Properties Trust rose 3.4% to $1.21.

Businesswire.co.nz

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