THE MARKET DB dominates in active trading

Press, 9 May 1985, Page 31

THE MARKET DB dominates in active trading

Trading in Dominion Breweries shares dominated activity on the New Zealand Stock Exchange yesterday. Turnover was particularly high. About 9.5 million shares were traded. They were worth more than $13.8M, including 2,014,043 Dominion Breweries shares and a special sale of I.BM United Transport Holdings shares.

The bid by Qtron Holdings, the Auckland-based investment group, for a 10 per cent stake in Dominion Breweries sparked the sharemarket flurry. The offer was pitched at 205 c and yesterday 891,796 were sold at this price, but DB sold as high as 210 c and the issue closed at 207 c for a 19c gain on Tuesday’s closing price. Qtron also reacted strongly to the DB offer, gaining 50c to 600.

But trading was mixed, the Barclays industrial index showing a slight gain of 1.62 points to 1571, but the

bigger Reserve Bank industrial index was off 27 points at 5732. Rises headed falls 66 to 41.

The market operator for Jordan Sandman Smythe, Mr Sandy Ellis, said that Buttle Wilson and Company was again aggressive in the market for Farers’ Trading Company (FTC) shares, the third or fourth day this had happened, giving a holding of between IM and 1.5 M shares. Mr Ellis also said that the buying of Winstone shares had been particularly strong in Auckland, and had formed a base of between 179 c and 180 c (Winstone eased 1c to 179 yesterday). Mr David Dott, a partner in Chamberlain Sturge and Company, Christchurch, said that the market bad opened firm and active yesterday morning after weakening on

Tuesday, but prices again eased in the afternoon because of the presence of profit-takers. Although the Dominion Breweries bid had sparked some renewed interest in the market, trading still seemed to lack a sense of direction, he said, predicting that the market would be slightly lower today.

The special sale of I.BM United Transport shares was down 1c on the closing onmarket price of 91. A special sale of 100,000 Andas shares at 190 c contrasted with the last on-market price of 170 for the issue.

Grosvenor jumped sharply because of the report which showed its trading profit had more than doubled. The property issue rose 13c to 165. Leyland Growth was unchanged at 133 c in spite oi announcing a maiden profit.