THE MARKET New high on corporate activity

Press, 18 June 1986, Page 35

THE MARKET New high on corporate activity

Renewed corporate activity pushed the New Zealand sharemarket to a new high yesterday as it added to already bullish sentiment fuelled by a falling New Zealand dollar and interest rates. Barclays’ index of industrial shares jumped no less than 50.15 points to 2569.14 — 38.14 points above its furious high of 2531.00 set on April 22. Once again rises outnumbered falls five to two, but turnover was much lower than on Monday, 4.9 million shares changing hands for $9.7 million — an average of 198 c a share. Dominion Breweries, under offer by a Rainbow share exchange for a 22 per cent holding, rose 55c to 490, but another Rainbow target, Rothmans, lost 20c to 540. Rainbow itself firmed 10c to 640. “The market was firm again yesterday afternoon, and locally quite active,” said Mr Derek Howarth, market operator for the Christchurch sharebroking firm Lawrence, Milton and Howarth. “The upsurge was caused by corporate activity, and all the traditional take-over suspects were hammered once again,” he said. “Apart from those, Omnicorp and Robert Jones Investments also stood out.” Brierley was well bid, and climbed 15 to 540, with 337,250 shares traded; Brierley-con-trolled lEP continued its

strong run, adding 20c to 1170. Leading manufacturers were also firm, with Lion rising 20c to 480, Fletcher Challenge 10c to 415, Fisher and Paykel 11c to 321, Feltex 5c to 320, Goodman Fielder 5c to 460, Wattie 5c to 365 and Winstone 2c to 150. L. D. Nathan put on 25c to 460, with its property offshoot Mace 30c ahead at 850 before going ex-rights today. Other leaders to rise included Progressive 7c to 382, Wilson and Horton 8c to 630. Up 5c each were McConnell Dowell to 150, Chase to 1100, and Equiticorp to 500. NZI put on 3c to 195. Easing slightly against the trend were FTC, down 2c to 175 and Capital Markets also 2c to 350. Elsewhere, Wilkins and Davies leaped 125 c to 550 after announcing a big profit increase and bonus issue last Friday. Cerebos Greggs went 10c above Cerebos Pacific Holdings’ bid price, to reach 180 c. Euro-National jumped 40c to 600 and Pacer Pacific gained 20c to 740, after both companies featured among brokers’ buy recommendations recently. Probably because Rainbow’s bids are creating potential for a major liquor industry ownership shake-up, Cooks McWilliams firmed 12c to 85. Ra Ora Stud closed 13c lower at 212, after earlier rising as far as 235.