MARKET CLOSE: NZ stock rose buoyed by offshore sentiment; ING, FPH and APN lead gains

By Jason Krupp

Sept. 2 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand stocks rose for the second time in three sessions, as buoyant Asian and Australian markets helped maintain investor risk appetite on the domestic front. ING Property Trust, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corp. and APN News & Media Ltd. paced gainers on the day.

The NZX 50 rose 5.4 points, or 0.2%, to 3084.5. Within the index 23 stocks rose, 16 fell and 11 were unchanged. Turnover was $72.6 million.

Asia Pacific markets rallied across the board on the back of better-than-expected manufacturing data from the U.S. and China. Japan’s Nikkei was last trading 1.1% up at 9023.8, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was last up 1.3% at 20886.1 and Australia’s ASX 200 was last trading 0.7% higher at 4528.8.

“Our largest exposures are to Australia and increasingly to Asia, so slow-downs in America and to a lesser degree Europe don’t mean as much to us as we’re seen as tagging onto the lucky countries,” said Paul Robertshawe, who helps manage $200 million in equities for Tower Asset Management Ltd. “We’ve got a decent exchange rate with Australia, which opens that market to us, and we have an exposure into Asia through our commodities, predominantly food which is less volatile than metals and resources.”

ING Property, the listed real estate investor which is to change its name to Argosy from Oct. 1, rose gained 2.9 percent to 70 cents. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, the medical device manufacturer, rose 2.1% to $2.98, and mining company Pike River Coal rose 1.9 to $1.07.

APN News & Media Ltd., the media company which publishes the New Zealand Herald and operates the Radio Network, rose 2% to $2.50 after the company announced that it had bought Pacific Magazines’ key women’s’ titles.

APN will double its share of the women’s’ magazine market in New Zealand to 41.6% of available readers, or 1.55 million people weekly, by adding the New Idea (12.3%) and That’s Life (7.6%) titles to its New Zealand Woman’s Weekly (21.5%), according to Nielsen ratings between July 2009 and June 2010.

Shares in takeover target NZ Farming Systems Uruguay Ltd. were unchanged at 70 cents after the South American dairy operator’s board recommended Olam International's takeover bid, which values the dairy farm developer at $171 million, or 70 cents a share.

Farming Systems' chairman John Parker said the increased offer, which is now in the independent adviser report's valuation range, and assurances that Singapore-based Olam will be able to provide funding helped sway them.

“Once the other bidder walked away from the table the chance of finding someone else to come up with a chunk of new capital was always going to be hard,” Robertshawe said.

Shares in New Zealand’s fourth biggest meat processor and exporter, Affco Holdings, were unchanged at 36 cents, one cent below the offer price from Talley’s Group.

The bidder today said it had extended its offer deadline to minority shareholders to Oct. 8, but stressed it would not be raising its price.

Goodman Fielder Ltd., the food ingredient maker, fell 2.9% to $1.68, leading declines on the day. Guinness Peat Group, the investment holding company, fell 2.4% to 62 cents, and jewellery retailer Michael Hill International Ltd. fell 1.5% to 67 cents.

Pyne Gould Corp., the financial services company, fell 2.4% to 41 cents after it announced that its Perpetual Group is in talks to acquire ASB Bank’s Aegis WRAP platform. No price was given in their statement.
In a separate development today, Pyne Gould confirmed that a $100 million loan to South Canterbury Finance has been repaid following the finance company’s collapse into receivership.

Telecom Corp, New Zealand’s largest telephone company, fell 1% to $2.03.

NZX Ltd., the securities market operator, fell 0.7% to $1.39. Fonterra Cooperative Group announced today that it had hired NZX to help design a platform for shareholders of the world’s biggest dairy exporter to trade stock amongst themselves.

The move to set up the platform comes after Fonterra’s shareholder-suppliers approved a ‘Trading Among Farmers’ concept in June that takes the redemption risk for the shares off Fonterra’s balance sheet and creates a closed market among the farmers.

(BusinessDesk)

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