Diligent surge some cheer for shaky NZ sharemarket

NZPA

Wednesday 13th July 2011

Shares in Diligent Board Member Services surged 14 percent in early trading after the company reported soaring second quarter sales.

The company, which provides a web-based portal for boards of directors, reported $US2.9 million ($NZ3.5m) in new net annualised licence fees in the second quarter. It was the fourth quarter of record new sales, and a big jump from $US1.9 million in the first quarter.

Diligent shares were up 17c to a record high 142, but the broader market was shaky with the benchmark NZX-50 index down 16.45 points to 3413.93 around 10.15am, on top of a 3.8-point fall yesterday.

Mainfreight fell further from the record high 1056 reached on Friday, losing 17c in early trading today to 1021.

Retirement village company Ryman Healthcare was down 9c to 267 early, with NZX reporting 23 million shares in the company changing hands.

Fletcher Building lost 4c to 822, NZX fell 4c to 230, Telecom dropped 2.5c to 248, Contact Energy fell 3c to 520, and Abano Healthcare was down 3c to 445.

Along with Diligent, early gains were recorded for OceanaGold, up 14c to 359, after the price of gold rallied to near its all time high as moves by officials to stem the European debt crisis failed to allay concerns that the risk was spreading to Italy and Spain.

In the United States, stocks ended lower after a volatile session, as the fiscal problems in Europe and a weak start to technology earnings kept investors from buying.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.5 percent to end at 12,446.88, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 0.4 percent at 1313.64, and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.7 percent to 2781.91.

Earlier, European stocks hit a four-month low and closed down for a third straight day. Shares also tumbled overnight in Asia on fears about the European debt crisis.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 closed down 0.5 percent, off its session lows, while the MSCI world equity index fell 0.8 percent.

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