21 Jul 2008

Local market up 27 points

5:33 pm on 21 July 2008

The NZX 50 index closed up 27.4 points to 3148 on turnover of $153 million on Monday, buoyed by big one-off trades in Sky City and Air New Zealand.

Telecom finished up 2 cents to $3.48, while Fletcher Building was up 19c to $6.65.

Contact Energy was up 18c to $7.80 after the Takeover Panel said it was looking for expressions of interest for independent experts to help determine the price BG Group must offer for Contact if its bid for Contact's majority owner, Origin Energy, is to be successful.

Sky City Entertainment was up 3c to $2.99, while Vector was up 1c to $2.03.

New Zealand Oil and Gas was down 5c to $1.57.

The dollar was trading at 76.19 US cents, 78.78 Australian cents, 38.18 pence, 81.35 yen and 0.48 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was 67.46.

Across the Tasman, the Australian 200 index was up 157 points to 4998 by late Monday afternoon.