29 May 2010

NZ sharemarket closes higher

6:25 pm on 29 May 2010

The New Zealand sharemarket's benchmark NZX50 rose 13 points (0.4%) to finish the week at 3045.

Fletcher Building rose 19 cents to $8.12 on Friday, Telecom was down 5 cents to $1.86 and Contact Energy fell 5 cents to $5.87.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 7 cents to $3.24 after its annual profit rose 15% on Thursday. Fisher & Paykel Appliances was unchanged at 55 cents after announcing an $83.3 million loss in the year to March.

Sky Network Television rose 5 cents to $4.70 and Sky City Entertainment Group was up 2 cents to $2.94.

Airport edges up after airline's announcement

Auckland International Airport edged up 1 cent to $1.88 as Continental Airlines announced plans to run direct flights from its base in Houston to Auckland, using the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Mainfreight gained 24 cents to $6.20 after its profit rose 3% to $36.4 million.

Tower was up 5 cents to $1.89 after making $27.9 million in the six month to the end of March and announcing an interim dividend. Sanford fell 2 cents to $4.25. Its annual profit fell 79% to $5.3m earlier this week.

On currency markets, the NZ dollar was buying 66.97 US cents, 80.11 Australian, 46.82 pence, 61.94 yen and 0.5527 euro. The TWI stood at 65.95.