1 May 2012

NZ market closes higher

7:10 pm on 1 May 2012

The NZX 50 rose 21 points, or 0.6%, to close at 3577 on turnover of $58 million at close on Tuesday.

Across the Tasman, the Reserve Bank of Australia has cut its main cash rate by a deeper-than-expected 50 basis points to 3.75% against a background of benign inflation and disappointing economic growth.

The New Zealand dollar is at 81.5 US cents, 78.92 Australian cents, 50.23 pence, 65.02 yen, 0.6152 euro and The Trade Weighted Index stood at 72.29.

Fletcher Building was up 10 cents at $6.36, Telecom 0.5 cent at $2.635, Chorus up 10 cents at $3.53 and Contact Energy was unchanged at $4.85.

SkyCity Entertainment was up 2 cents at $3.86, Sky Network Television up 7 cents to $5.53 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare down 1 cent at $2.21.

TradeMe was up 6 cents at $3.68 after announcing on Monday it had acquired the rest of the vehicle dealer collator AutoBase.

Hallenstein Glasson was up 3 cents to $3.95, Pumpkin Patch was up 2 cents to $1.02, Skellerup down 1 cent to $1.49 and NZX was down 1 cent at $2.78.

Freightways was unchanged at $4.15.

New Zealand Oil and Gas was up 1 cent to 78 cents after announcing on Monday it sold $34.4 million of oil and gas from its Kupe and Tui oil fields in the three months to the end of March.

Pyne Gould down 2 cents to 32 cents after KPMG quit as its auditor.