6 Jul 2012

NZX 50 index gains over week

9:43 pm on 6 July 2012

New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 share index has closed the week down 5 points, to 3478 on a turnover of $102 million.

This leaves it above the 3399 level at which it started and finished the last business week of June, and showing improvement on the week ending June 15, when was trading at 3447 points.

On Friday, cornerstone stock Telecom fell 0.3 cents to $2.45, and Sky City Entertainment fell 5 cents to $3.47. Pyne Gould Corporation slipped 2 cents to 27 cents after selling some of its stake in both Heartland and PGG Wrightson.

Share prices unchanged at the end of the day included those of Chorus ($3.20) and Xero ($5).

Fletcher Building rose 5 cents to $6.27, Contact Energy rose 1 cent to $4.85,

Sky Network TV rose 4 cent to $4.87, and Auckland International Airport rose 2 cents to $2.44.

In currency markets, the NZ dollar reached a fresh high on Friday against the euro after the European Central Bank cut its key interest rate to a record low of 0.75%.

The currency on Friday rose to 0.6489 euro..

Only 8% of New Zealand's exports are sold to Europe, so the high exchange rate will have little direct impact on exporters.

But BNZ currency strategist Mike Jones says there may be an indirect effect on New Zealand's trade with China, as slowing European economies are affecting China's growth.

At the end of the business day, the NZ dollar was buying 80.16 US cents, 78.22 Australian, 51.62 pence, 64.04 yen, 0.6404 euro, and the TWI was 72.72 points.