Buoyant opening fades at close

Press, 27 June 1989, Page 25

Buoyant opening fades at close

The New Zealand sharemarket opened on a bullish note yesterday after the 50 point jump in Wall Street’s Dow Jones index last Friday. The Barclays index of industrial shares started the day 20 points up as traders expected a strong Australian market with consequently good demand for our leading stocks. The Australian market did indeed open on a firmer note, but soon got bogged down in the troubles of Hooker and Bond Media, with the result that punters found that they had overanticipated and our stocks did not quite reach the heights hoped for. The Barclays index of industrial shares lost ground in the afternoon, but at 1933.85 was still 12.55 points higher than at Friday’s close. The NZSE gross index gained 3.28 points to 729.93, but lost 4.98 points on its lunch-time level. There were twice as many rises as falls, as 7.9 million shares changed hands for $16.4 million — an average of 208 c a share.

The high average is attributable to the large number of Fletcher Challenge shares traded: 1.7 million. Fletchers led early trade but was later outpaced by Chase Corp, which contributed 1.9 million shares to the total turnover. Fletchers jumped 10c in the morning session, but was only 4c higher at the

close of trading, at 488. Chase lost Ic, to 19. Mr Patrick Lee, of the Christchurch office of United Sharebrokers, said that after a buoyant opening prices slipped in the afternoon, particularly in transTasman stocks, as the Australian market focused on the problems of Hooker Corporation and Bond Media. “Locally, good rises were recorded by Ceramco, Fisher and Paykel, Goodman Fielder Wattie, and Lion Natham.” ‘The market is exhibiting a solid base at present, and prospects for the rest of the week look encouraging,” Mr Lee said.

Liquor stocks had a mixed day with Lion Nathan up 6c to 325 (17,000 traded) and Magnum Corp down 2c to 301 (45,400). New' Zealand Equities shed 2c to 36, well below Paladin Ltd’s offer price of about 46c a share. Capital Markets slipped 1c to 146 on the back of a lull in Bank of New Zealand trading. No BNZ shares were traded yesterday but rights in the BNZ’s seven-for-10 share issue went ex, trading at 10c — 4c below the theoretical price. Goodman Fielder Wattie firmed 6c to close at 284, Wilson and Horton finished 3c higher at 670, and Fisher and Paykel recovered from last week’s 15c fall to close up 7c at 390.