THE MARKET Busy but easier

Press, 24 December 1985, Page 18

THE MARKET Busy but easier

Rises and falls were practically in balance on the New Zealand sharemarket yesterday, . but leading shares tended easier, and Barclay’s index of industrial shares slipped 3.05 points to 1907.89, on a turnover of 5.6 million shares worth $9.1 million — a high average of 162.5 a share,. “Trading showed no real direction,” said Mr Tim Pi-eston, market operator for Hamilton ’ Hindin ‘ and Greene, Christchurch sharebroker. “Brokers are clearing up their order books, but there are still a lot of orders around,” he said. Equiticorp and New Zealand Steel were heavily marked back, and Goliath and Jedi stood out, while there was quite a bit of interest in oil shares, he said. Equiticorp, which eased 35c on Friday when it announced a bid to buy up three companies comEletely, shed a further 25c ) 400, but its targets all finned. Yates gained 30c to 160, and A. M. Bisley added 15c to 165, before both companies issued “don’t sell” notices yesterday. The third company, Jedi, which has majority holdings in both Yates and Bisley, 4 and is Already 50 per cent-owned by Equiticorp, rose just 4c to 47. Other leaders aihoiig the

falls were L D. Nathan 10c to 520, Apex 5c to 385, Chase 5c to 550, NZI 3c to 183, Fletcher Challenge, 2c to 346, Progressive Enterprises, 2c to 328, Winstone 2c to 165 and Crown 1c to 171. Brierley headed the rises, up 8c to 820, while Carter Holt Harvey firmed 6c to 288 with more than 500,000 shares traded. Also up were ANZ 5c to 300, Fisher and Paykel 5c to 295, Cable Price Downer 4c to 292 and Dominion Breweries 1c to 293. The biggest move of the day was the predictable drop of NZ Steel after Fridays Government announcement that it would pay more than $1 billion of NZ Steel expansion project debts in return for a massive share issue for the Government to on-sell. NZ Steel closed 38c down at 100. Others to fail among the second-liners were Ernest Adams, 20c to 410, Leyland Growth, 20c to 130, NZ Equities, 20c to 210, Baker 15c to 280, Cavalier Elco, 15c to 150 and Mair, 15c to 265. Risers included EuroNational 30c to 430, Anzon 22c to 152, and Smart 20c to 130.