GFW deal boosts turnover

Press, 29 November 1989, Page 46

GFW deal boosts turnover

Large off-market sales of Goodman Fielder Wattie shares boosted turnover on the New Zealand sharemarket yesterday, in otherwise quiet trading. Prices were steady. Twenty-five million GFW shares traded at 257 c, 270,000 at 241 c, and 250,000 at 242 in offmarket transactions, on the day of the company’s annual meeting in Sydney. Brokers said the large parcel was the equivalent of 2.5 per cent of GFW, and was the size of a block held by Thane Investments.

Over-all volume for the sharemarket yesterday was 34,071,153 shares for a total value of $77,833,368. Falls outnumbered rises about four to three.

The Stock Exchannge’s gross index was up 0.58 points at 829.06. The Barclays index rose 1.48 points to 2063.81. Overnight Wall Street began trading for the week and rose strongly, continuing the good run of last week. The Dow Jones industrial average, which rose 22.89 points last week, lifted another 19.42 points, and closed at 2694.97.

The Australian market

was again easier as the selling of gold shares continued in spite of the high bullion price. The market was also influenced by a higher Australian dollar. In Tokyo yesterday, the Nikkei closed at a record high for the fifth successive day. Volume billowed to a level unseen since April (about 1.5 billion shares compared with a billion on Monday). The Nikkei index closed 103.77 points up at 36,985.30. The Nikkei index has now soared 1000 points in five trading days. This is a rise of almost 3 per cent. The most heavily traded shares have been those of the five giant steelmakers, headed by Sumitomo Metal Industries. The trading company, Marubeni, has also been heavily traded. Mr Tim Preston, of Hamilton, Hindin, Greene, said the highlight of the day in New Zealand was the off-market sale of 25M shares in Goodman, Fielder, Wattie;

The market seemed to lift in the afternoon, Mr Preston said, reinforcing hopes that prices would improve when the two attractive cash issues, by Robt Jones Investments

and Fletcher Challenge closed this week. In the meantime, however, the New Zealand market seemed to be following Australia rather than other leading overseas markets, which were buoyant. Fletcher Challenge was steady at its absolute low for the year of 425 c. Volume topped half a million shares for a total value of $2.18M.

Brierley Investments firmed another cent to 216 on turnover of 490,000 shares for a total of $1,057,184.

More than 1.5 M Chase shares traded, and the issue closed half a cent down at 3c. Air New Zealand was also heavily traded — 335,200 shares. The price eased 1c to 252. Air N.Z. shares have been on a gentle descent path since trading began late in October at 275 c.

Brierley Investments Hong Kong-based offshoot, lEP, eased 5c to 250 on sales of more than 31,000. Adjusting for a Hong Kong 25c (about NZ5c) dividend last month, lEP has fallen about 26 per cent since the beginning of last month.