Market Close: Bargain hunters emerge from the sidelines

Tuesday 24th June 2008

The sharemarket staged another positive day as bargain hunters began to emerge from the sidelines. After falling 1.7% to a 30-month low on Friday, the market shook off last week's gloom on Wall St and the NZ50 closed up 11 points at 3298 on average volume of $110 million.

Auckland International Airport ($1.94,+3c) was up 1.6% as the Commerce Commission released the reasoning behind its decision to block the sale of Nuance Group to DFS Group. The commission believes the proposed acquisition could result in substantially lessened competition for duty free at Auckland Airport.

Both Fisher and Paykel stocks were significantly up, with Healthcare ($2.36,+14c) rising 6.3% and Appliances ($2.00,+9c) up 4.7%.

Contact Energy ($8.39,+16c) was up 1.9% as its parent company Origin Energy was subject to a hostile takeover offer by BG Group.

Telecom ($3.70,-7c) was down 1.9%, Fletcher Building ($6.42,-16c) was also down 2.4% on solid volume.

US stocks finished mixed following heavy losses at the end of last week as investors girded for an interest rate policy meeting of the Federal Reserve amid troubled economic times.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down a slight 0.33 points at 11,842.36.
The tech-dominated Nasdaq composite sank 20.35 points, or 0.85 per cent, to 2,385.74, while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 0.07 points, or 0.01 per cent, to a close of 1,318.00.

At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was only slightly up by 6.3 points, at 5,290 (+0.12%).

The main changes in the NZ market were:

Air New Zealand	up 3	to $ 1.13
Auckland Intl Airport	up 3	to $ 1.94
Contact Energy	up 16	to $ 8.39
F&P Appliances Hdgs	up 9	to $ 2.00
F&P Healthcare Corp	up 14	to $ 2.36
Guinness Peat Group Plc	up 2	to $ 1.47
NZ Refining Co	up 35	to $ 7.20
Rakon	up 29	to $ 3.15
Sky City Entertainment	up 8	to $ 3.33
Vector Ltd	up 3	to $ 2.04
AMP	down 19	to $ 8.06
ANZ Banking Group	down 85	to $ 22.65
Fletcher Building	down 16	to $ 6.42
SKYTV	down 3	to $ 4.32
Telecom Corp of NZ	down 7	to $ 3.70
Telstra Corp	down 1	to $ 5.40
The Warehouse Group	down 13	to $ 4.55
Westpac Banking Corp	down 64	to $ 25.35

NZ Top 50	3,298	+10.627 (+0.32%)
ASX 200	5,290	+6.300 (+0.12%)
Dow	11,842	-0.33 (-0.00%)
Nasdaq	2,385	-20.35 (-0.85%)
FTSE 100	5,667	+46.40 (+0.83%)

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