2 May 2014

NZ shares rise equalling earlier record

7:06 pm on 2 May 2014

New Zealand shares rose on Friday, the benchmark Top 50 Index gaining 24 points to 5233, equalling the record reached earlier this week.

Harbour Asset Management equities analyst Craig Stent said a number of companies announced good news on Friday.

He said Briscoes had its first quarter sales results and their sales were up about 5.5 percent on the previous year.

Mr Stent said cancer diagnostic company Pacific Edge Biotech won the top bioscience company for 2014.

He said honey and natural health products company Comvita had a positive result and its stock bounced as well.

Mr Stent said Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Sky TV and Contact were all up, while Telecom on the downside gave up some of its recent good performance.

Briscoes shares rose 10 cents to $2.48, Pacific Edge shares gained 4 cents to $1.12 and Comvita shares climbed 8 cents to $3.30.

Comvita said late on Thursday that it expected to report a near 2 percent rise in annual net profit after a stronger second half. The company said it suffered shortages of Manuka honey during the first half but had plenty of supply in the second half.

Telecom shares fell 5 cents to $2.68.5 while Ryman gained 14 cents to $8.89 after earlier hitting a record $8.91.

NZ dollar little changed

Around 5pm the New Zealand dollar was little changed from the same time on Saturday.

Bancorp Treasury Services senior client advisor Peter Cavanaugh said the market was waiting for key data due in the United States later on Friday.

He said the US is to release key non-fund payroll and unemployment data which will set the tone for currency markets and the Federal Reserve.

At about 5pm on Friday the kiwi was trading at 86.26 US cents, 92.97 Australian cents, 51.08 British pence, 0.6222 euro, 88.3 yen and 5.4 renminbi.