MARKET CLOSE: NZ shares rise; Telecom, Fletcher advance, Pumpkin Patch falls

Nov. 30 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand shares rose on the final day of November, with market heavyweights Telecom and Fletcher Building pacing the advance amid signs investors are becoming more confident to take on risk.

The NZX 50 rose 30.73 points, or 0.9 percent, to 3270.20. Within the index 26 stocks rose, 16 fell, and eight were unchanged. Turnover was $137 million.

Telecom, which officially split off its Chorus network business today, rose 2 percent to $2.03, the highest since Chorus shares began trading last week.

Chorus, which today announced it had secured a $1.35 billion syndicated bank facility, slipped 0.6 percent to $3.29, having climbed from a listing price of $2.94 last week.

Fletcher edged up 0.7 percent to $5.92, having tumbled 23 percent this year, with the decline accelerating with last month's announcement that first-half profit would fall 10 percent and full-year earnings growth would stall because of weak housing demand.

Government figures today showed the number of new dwellings approved, excluding apartments, rose a seasonally adjusted 7.1 percent to 1,123 in October and was up 11 percent including volatile apartment issuance. A 46 percent increase in the number of permits to build in Auckland underpinned the national gain.

Fletcher's gain " might have something to do with the building consents looking better," said Grant Williamson, a director at Hamilton Hindin Greene. Generally "more confidence is returning" to the equity market, he said.

Sanford was unchanged at $4.40 after the nation's biggest publicly traded fishing company reported an 11 percent drop in full-year profit after the rising kiwi dollar eroded returns in the second half, higher fuel costs and fleet disruptions.

Profit fell to $22.3 million in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, from $25 million a year earlier, the Auckland-based company said in a statement today. Sales rose 10 percent to $464 million.

Goodman Fielder, the Australasian food maker, rose 6.4 percent to 67 cents.

Pacific Edge, the fledgling cancer diagnostic test company, rose 4.6 percent to 23 cents after it posted a smaller first-half loss as it pushes on with bringing its Cxbladder product to market in the US.

The net loss narrowed to $1.39 million in the six months ended Sept. 30, from $1.42 million in the same period a year earlier, the Dunedin-based company said in a statement. Sales dropped 24 percent to $201,000.

NZX, the stock exchange operator, rose 3.1 percent to $2.32 and Sky City Entertainment Group climbed 2.4 percent to $3.38.

Hallenstein Glasson, the clothing chain, fell 1.3 percent to $3.75 after shedding its 17 cent final dividend.

(BusinessDesk)

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