THE MARKET Brierleys again prime mover

Press, 5 December 1985, Page 65

THE MARKET Brierleys again prime mover

Keen demand for the shares of Brierley Investments provided once again the main impetus to the New Zealand sharemarket yesterday, and many other shares came along for the ride as rises outnumbered falls two to one.

Barclay’s index of industrial shares jumped 13.47 points to 1745.94 and trading was fairly active as 7.0 million shares changed hands for a modest $6.6 million.

Brierley shares rose sharply to 710 c —20 c up on the day — but brokers thought the sudden increase not related to Brierley’s placement of 15 million shares to Australian industrial investors. It was more likely to be the result of the generally positive sentiment about Brierleys at the moment. Also, they said, BIL shares are in short supply. Apart from Brierleys the largest gain among the market leaders was by ANZ Banking which put on 10c to

280 c. Gains of 5c were made by Feltex to 237 c and Equiticorp to 305 c, while Fletcher Challenge rose 3c to 311 c, and Dominion Breweries at 297, Goodman at 360 c and UEB at 140 c gained 2c each. Despite NZ Forest Products falling 3c to 255 c yesterday, brokers said it had failed to react either way to its poor interim result announced earlier this week. Other leaders to lose 3c were McConnell Dowell at 115 and NZI at 173 c.

NZ Industrial Gases, after Sex a one for two i issue yesterday, sold at 232 c — steady on the exissue price. Mount Cook, not often traded, fell 10c to 300 c.

The diversified industrial group, Abacus, after the announcement of a formal take-over bid from R. and W. Hellaby, gained 25c to 235 c.

Other good rises were NZ Salmon up 20c to 430 c,

followed by Sanford up 15c to 300 c, Apex up 10c to 345 c, and Rainbow up 10c to 255 c.

Big crossings were Omnicorp, 133,600 shares selling at 125 c, up 8c; Queenstown, 230,650 shares selling at 67c, up 2e, and Renouf Properties, 118,700. selling at 96c, up sc.