MARET CLOSE: Sharemarket ends flat day slightly down

Thursday 14th April 2011

The New Zealand sharemarket was flat for most of the day and stepped into negative territory near the close.

The benchmark NZX-50 index closed down 3.148 points at 3454.481. Turnover was worth $113.6 million. There were 44 rises and 32 falls among the 115 stocks traded.

The big mover on the day was the New Zealand dollar, which surged over US79c. The rise did not appear to knock exporters.

Rakon (NZX: RAK ) continued its recovery from around $1 in mid-March, closing up 3c at $1.16 today.

"Rakon is recovering from the March blues and the dollar doesn't seem to be affecting it," said James Smalley at Hamilton, Hindin, Greene. The stock has been rising since a presentation to the Forsyth Barr Horizons Investor Day on April 7.

Jeweller Michael Hill (NZX: MHI ) was unchanged at 89 after reporting an 8.6% rise in same store sales to $359.7 million in the nine months to the end of March.

Smalley said the market seemed to have shrugged off what were pretty good sales figures.

Vector (NZX: VCT ) ose 4c to $2.43 as it recovered from a knock earlier this week after expressing astonishment at the latest move by regulator the Commerce Commission.

Hallenstein Glasson (NZX: HLG ) rose 19c to 44.00 on light volume. The Warehouse (NZX: WHS ) rose 5c to $3.47 and Restaurant Brands (NZX: RBD ) rose 4c to $2.53.

Contact Energy (NZX: CEN ) rose 1c to $5.84 and TrustPower (NZX: TPW ) eased 4c to $7.36.

Tower (NZX: TWR ), a potential buyer of AMI Insurance, was unchanged at $1.85.

Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ) has come off the boil after surging over $9.50 in recent weeks on index-related buying and positive sentiment when it clinched the purchase of Australian company Crane.

"There is just a bout of profit-taking, it has had a strong run from the 780 mark," Mr Smalley said.

Diligent Board Member Services (NZX: DIL ) rose 11c to $1.01 after reporting record quarterly sales in the first three months of 2011, as the company benefited from increasing acceptance by executives of the Apple iPad.

Carpet maker Cavalier Corp (NZX: CAV ) rose a cent to $3.50 on a day that New Zealand Wool Services International chairman Derek Kirke said he was mystified that the Commerce Commission's preliminary view favoured Cavalier Wool Holdings' plan to acquire up to 100% New Zealand Wool Services International's wool scouring assets.

The lacklustre performance by stocks in the US came despite strong profit growth from JPMorgan Chase & Co, the No 2 US bank.

Analysts questioned whether the results from JPMorgan, the first major Wall Street bank to report this quarter, were a one-time win or a harbinger of others' performance.

"People are getting the sense that no matter what these companies say, the easy money has already been made so it will be tough to see further upward movement," said Rick Fier, vice president at Conifer Securities in New York, which has about US$7 billion in assets under administration.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.1% to 12,270.99, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index inched up 0.02% to 1314.41, and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.6% to 2761.52.

NZPA

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