Market muddles along

Press, 12 June 1986, Page 25

Market muddles along

The New Zealand sharemarket muddled along in flat, mixed trading yesterday, with falls outnumbering rises about seven to six. Barclays’ index of industrial shares slipped 1.14 points to 2479.16, on a turnover that was deceptively high, as it was boosted by a special late sale of 942,100 Chase shares at 1080 c. This sale was transacted on Tuesday but included in yesterday’s totals. Allowing for this, turnover compared at about 5.2 million shares worth $lO.B million — an average of. 208 c a share. Chase itself fell 5c to 1080, but leaders to firm were lEP up 15c to 950, Capital Markets up 5c to 345, and Equiticorp up 5c to 505. Minor gains were recorded by L. D. Nathan at 432, and Waitaki NZR at 136, which rose 2c and 1c respectively. ANZ, at 275, Goodman Fielder, at 445, Brierley Investments, at 515 and Dominion Breweries, at 430 all fell sc. NZI lost 2c to close at 182 while McConnell Dowell at 142 was down Ic. Competing bids for the shares of the Christ-church-based wool and hide merchant, Mair Astley, Ltd, took the stock up 32c to 282. The Auckland broker, Morrow and Benjamin, advised yesterday they had bought 235,972 shares in Mair at 275 c per share, while it was under-

stood that the Wellington broker, O’Connor Grieve, were also in the market at a higher price. Rarely-traded stocks Brother, at 200, and Ernest Adams at 430 shed 30c and 20c respectively, while Rainbow fell 30c to 690. The top ten shares by turnover were: Chase, 973,500; Prime West, 484,700; Mair, 365,863; Brierley, 194,250; SalSmithßio, 170,300; NZI, 158,500; ConsEnt, 144,500; Kuplnv, 122,000; Thorbred, 119,900; Apex, 115,100. The top ten shares by value in NZ dollars were: Chase, 9,882,215; Mair, 1,004,678; Brierley, 1,002,669; NZSalmon, 530,010; Rothmans, 456,825; SalSmithßio, 425,812; Apex, 402,100; FletCh, 354,952; Bendon, 336,360; Lion, 316,190.