New Zealand stocks advance

1:03 GMT

May 2008

(RTTNews) - Wellington stocks were advancing on Friday, led by the top three stocks. The benchmark NZX 50 Index was gaining 16.15 points or 0.45% to 3,630.38, while the NZX All Capital Index was adding 16.96 points or 0.47% to 3,624.09.

On the economic front, Zealand’s Capital Goods Price Index increased 0.5% in the first quarter. Statistics New Zealand reported Friday that higher construction prices for new houses and non-residential buildings were the main contributors to the increase. For the full year to the March 2008 quarter, the CGPI rose 2.5 percent.

Meanwhile, producer prices in New Zealand increased 1.8% for the first quarter of 2008. Statistics New Zealand reported Friday that rising dairy prices were the main contributor to the rise in output prices.

The New Zealand dollar rebounded on Friday, recouping losses following the release of weak retail trade figures on Thursday that sent it to a four-month low. At 8 am local time, the kiwi was buying USD0.7635 compared with USD0.7565 at 5 pm on Thursday.

Among the top stocks, Telecom climbed 1.05%, Contact Energy added 0.57% and Fletcher Building rose 2.48%.

In the retail space, The Warehouse Group added 0.38% and Hellaby Holdings eased 0.57%. Hallenstein Glasson, Michael Hill and Pumpkin Patch remained unchanged. Among other stocks, Sky City declined 0.76%, Steel & Tube eased 0.32% and Nuplex remained unchanged. Rakon gained 1.47% after it announced the sale of an asset in the U.K.

Energy stock TrustPower advanced 0.71%, while Vector gave away 0.48%. On Thursday, Trust Power had reported a 4% decline in annual net profit as it was exposed to high wholesale prices.

Viking Capital said that it would be negatively impacted by ICP Biotechnology being put into “unexpected” receivership. ICP went into voluntary administration on Thursday. In late April, the company had said that a difficult trading environment had been made worse by the continued delay in achieving material sales levels, particularly in its new proteins business. The company had also said that voluntary administration would enable it to try and restructure or recapitalise itself so it can trade its way out of difficulty. Viking owned 21.6% of ICP. Viking’s stock rose 5.00%, while ICP shares fell 33.3%.

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Posted in Categories: Releases, Stocks.