MARKET CLOSE: Sharemarket ends week on strong footing

Friday 18th February 2011 1 Comment

The New Zealand sharemarket ended the week on a strong footing, following stunning gains from stocks including Sky TV and Abano Healthcare.

Sky TV (NZX: SKT ) shares gained 17c to $5.58, after the company reported a 19% rise in half year net profit to $60.3 million, as revenue rose 8% from a year earlier to $398 million.

The company attributed the result to the success of the MY SKY HDi decoder and a rebound in advertising sales.

The benchmark NZX-50 index was up 17 points, or just over 5%, closing at 3412.739 after rising 11.2 points the day before.

In early trading today OceanaGold (NZX: OGC ) shares were up 8c to $4.08, having risen from %3.41 at the start of the week, but by 5pm it had lost 15c to settle at $3.85.

OceanaGold yesterday reported a 29% gain in revenue for the 2010 calendar year to US$305.6 million (NZ$402.8 million).

Full year net profit for the Melbourne-based company with gold mines in the South Island was down 18.5 percent to $US44.4m.

Specialist health care clinic investor Abano Healthcare (NZX: ABA ) added 10c, or 2.2%, to $4.65, Nuplex (NZX: NPX ) added 9c to $3.75 and Restaurant Brands (NZX: RBD ) gained 2c to $2.47.

NZ Refining Co (NZX: NZR ) fell 14c to $4.86 on top of a 10c fall yesterday after reporting an improved after tax full year profit of $57.7 million.

Telecom (NZX: TEL ) gained 2c to $2.25. Contact (NZX: CEN ) added 3c to $6.25 and Fletcher Building (NZX: FBU ) rose 5c to close at $8.39.

Meanwhile, Mainfreight (NZX: MFT ) added 4c to $8.19, Sanford (NZX: SAN ) lost 7c to $4.93, Vector (NZX: VCT ) eased 3c to $2.51 and Freightway (NZX: FRE ) fell 3c to $3.32.

In the US, investors piled on a dizzying two-year advance in stocks, using a brief slip on negative economic news as an opportunity to buy into market leaders.

The technology sector showed strength, with Nvidia Corp up 9.8% a day after posting a bullish revenue forecast as sales of its processors accelerate.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.2% to 12,318, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.3% at 1340, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.2% at 2832.

NZPA

Comments from our readers

On 19 February 2011 at 10:49 am Nick said:

Well done SKy, now I won't be getting those regular letters explaining their need to put up the fees.