MARKET CLOSE: PGG Wrightson shares soar on Chinese bid

The sharemarket was slightly firmer on the last day before Christmas where a market tradition of a corporate raid on Christmas Eve was observed with a move by China's Agria to take control of rural services firm PGG Wrightson.

At midday the benchmark NZX-50 index was up 2.36 points, or 0.071%, to 3336.118. Trading is abridged today but it continues to 3.45pm.

PGG Wrightson (NZX: PGW ) shares rose 16.7%, or 8c, to 56 after Agria signalled a partial bid for PGG Wrightson at 60c a share.

Agria, which currently has 19.01% of PGG Wrightson, is bidding with New Hope Group, another Chinese agricultural company, to take its stake in PGG Wrightson to 50.01%.

The move came days after the Government declined an application for Hong Kong based Natural Dairy NZ Holdings to by 16 farms from receivers.

Pyne Gould (NZX: PGC ) shares rose 2c to 39 after it said it will sell its 18.3% stake in PGG Wrightson to Agria but it may be subject to scaling, leaving it with some shares when the offer closes.

"The 2010 calendar year has been an historic year of transformation for the group," Pyne Gould Corp chief executive Jeff Greenslade said.

Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ) was down 1c at $7.82 after this week providing the documentation for its bid for Australia's Crane Group.

Telecom (NZX: TEL ) fell 1c to $2.23, with Mainfreight (NZX: MFT ) also down 3c, to $7.89.

The Warehouse (NZX: WHS ) fell 4c to $3.55 and SkyCity (NZX: SKC ) fell 1c to $3.35.

Hellaby (NZX: HBY ) rose 5c to $2.08, and Fisher & Paykel Appliances (NZX: FPA ) rose 1c to 55.

Air NZ (NZX: AIR ) rose 3c to $1.53 as it showed off the first of its new fleet of 777-300ER aircraft to the media.

Stocks in the US ended mixed after reports showed small improvements in consumer spending and the job market.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 14 points to 11,573.49, the S&P 500 index fell 0.16% to 1256.77, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 0.22% to 2665.6.

NZPA

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