Building Society Holdings shares start trading

Tuesday 1st February 2011

Shares in new listing Building Society Holdings opened at 95c on the New Zealand sharemarket but quickly fell away to 88c.

Building Society Holdings (NZX: BSH ) was established through the combining of Pyne Gould Corp's Marac Finance, CBS Canterbury and Southern Cross Building Society.

The combined operation is one of the largest finance companies now operating in this country, and it also has plans to obtain a banking licence.

Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ) edged up 1c early to $7.74, having lost 16c yesterday after announcing an increased bid for Australian plumbing supplies firm Crane Group, which the Crane board approved.

Around 10.15am the benchmark NZX-50 index was down 2.96 points to 3335.78, following on from yesterday's 13.9-point fall.

Sanford (NZX: SAN ) shares fell 6c early to $4.94, Cavalier Corp (NZX: CAV ) dropped 4c to $3.15, Sky City (NZX: SKC ) was down 3c to $3.25, Trustpower (NZX: TPW ) fell 3c to $7.21, Air New Zealand (NZX: AIR ) was down 2c to $1.38, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (NZX: FPH ) lost 2c to $3.16.

Two of the largest stocks edged up, with Telecom (NZX: TEL ) adding 1c to $2.29, and Contact Energy (NZX: CEN ) up 2c to $6.17.

In the US, stocks rose on healthy earnings and signs of a strengthening economy, even as a surge in the price of oil highlighted the potential for increased political risk in the Middle East to upset markets.

According to preliminary data the Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.6% to 11,891.86, the Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.8% to 1286.10, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.5% to 2700.08.

For the month, the Dow rose 2.7%, the S&P 500 added 2.3% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.8%. It was the fourth month of gains in the last five for the three indexes.

After a weekend of digesting the political turmoil in Egypt, investors took a more sanguine view of events after sending stocks sharply lower on Friday.

Relief that the turmoil appeared not to be escalating as feared allowed investors to focus on data showing stronger US personal spending and regional manufacturing as well as solid earnings from Exxon Mobil Corp.

NZPA

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