ANZ and Trade Me the standouts as index edges up

ew Zealand shares lagged a rally across Asia as stock markets took their lead from Wall Street on a day when firms posted better- thanexpected earnings. Dual- listed stocks ANZ Banking Group and Trade Me led the local bourse higher.

The S& P/ NZX 50 index edged up 9.16 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 7197.21. Within the index, 17 stocks gained, 18 fell and 15 were unchanged. Turnover was $ 135 million.

Stocks across Asia rose with Australia’s S& P/ ASX up 0.7 per cent in afternoon trading and South Korea’s Kospi 200 index gaining 1 per cent, following Wall Street higher.

“The US markets have had probably more down days than up days over the past fortnight and there’s been a little bit of a bounce after a period of weakness,” said Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners. “It seems to be a bit quieter because of school holidays and the shortened week.”

Dual- listed stocks were at the top of the leaderboard, headed by ANZ which gained 2.4 per cent to $ 34.19. Trade Me Group rose 2.2 per cent to $ 5.12 and Air New Zealand advanced 2.1 per cent to $ 2.49. Westpac Banking Corp climbed 1.3 per cent to $ 36.96.

Fletcher Building increased 0.8 per cent to $ 7.91. The building products and construction firm has been the subject of rumours that investment banks are looking to pitch a break- up or buy- out of the company, although Craigs’ Lister didn’t think there was much truth to the specu- lation. “No one seems to really believe that. If they did you would have seen the share price strengthen on the back of those reports and they still seem to be in the dog box in the investment community,” Lister said.

Restaurant Brands New Zealand was unchanged at $ 5.25. About half of the fast food operator’s unioni sed workforce will today picket stores around the country after nego- tiations for a new collective agreement broke down.

Vista Group International posted the biggest fall on the day, down 1.5 per cent to $ 5.86, while Comvita declined 1.4 per cent to $ 7.20. Mainfreight decreased 0.9 per cent to $ 21.80.

Outside the benchmark index, NPT was unchanged at 63c after shareholders led by Augusta Capital voted to block a proposed deal with Kiwi Property Group. Augusta shares rose 1 per cent to $ 1.

Wellington Drive rose 3.6 per cent to 29c after saying first- quarter sales were up 30 per cent.

Michael Hill was unchanged at $ 1.25 after Fisher Funds Management emerged as a substantial shareholder in the jewellery chain.

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