SHAREMARKET Stock prices drift in listless trading

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 46

SHAREMARKET Stock prices drift in listless trading

Share prices drifted in listless trading on the New Zealand stock exchange yesterday, with a lot of the action off market by way of special sales, especially in the morning.

Offmarket sales included one million lEP shares, 600,000 Brierley Investments shares, 350,000 Fisher and Paykel, 350,000 Goodman Fielder Wattle, 300,000 Jarden Morgan, 270,000 Robt Jones Investments, 250,000 Fletcher Challenge, and 230,000 Magnum shares.

Altogether 9.8 million shares changed hands for $16.3 million — an average of 166 c a share. Falls outnumbered rises five to

four. The Barclays index of industrial shares slipped below the 1900 mark again, down 3.99 points to 1898.13, while the NZSE gross index closed down 0.48 points at 698.30 — but well ahead of its 3.76 points deficit at mid session. The New Zealand/Australian dollar cross rate was flat throughout the day, giving dual-listed stocks little reason to move. Mr Tim Preston, of Hamilton Hindin Greene, said an indifferent market, quiet apart from a few special sales, drifted back a bit in the morning. “In the afternoon interest came back and buying support appeared.

“Overseas comment on our economy remains favourable, with everything regarded all right except

the Government. “Barring anything disastrous overseas it should be a good market for the rest of the week,” Mr Preston said. Most price changes were small. Fletchers led the market down with a fall of 4c to 477, Brierley closed unchanged after recovering the morning’s loss, and Goodman Fielder fell 3c to 297 amid rumours that Ranks Hovis McDougall had a number of buyers lined up for its stake in the company.

Chase lost 2c to 32, while NZI Corp at 48, Magnum at 382, and Tozer KM at 283 slipped 1c each. Falls of 2c each were posted by Waitaki at 42, Smiths City Group at 53, and Countrywide at 234, but other banks were firm: Bank of New Zealand recovered lc to 100,

and ANZ came back 2c to 655.

Carter Holt Harvey and Lion Nathan led the rises among the blue chips, gaining 4c each to 249 and 300. Elders NZFP at 306, and Fisher and Paykel at 404, put on 2c each, while Robt Jones Investments at 93 and Wilson Neill at 77, both edged up Ic.

Locally, Mount Cook Group dropped 5c to 175, and LWR Industries 3c to 138.

Interest rates crept up during the day, but good cash distribution kept the call rate below the medium and bond rates. The Barclays share index futures contract yesterday almost closed the gap between it and the physical, coming down to 1900.