Oct 1 - Close: Quiet start to week for NZX

After failing to fire on Friday, the New Zealand sharemarket made a quiet start to the week with some small gains.

The benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 12.29 points at 4281.19, a rise of 0.29 per cent. Brokers said holidays in Australia and Asia contributed to a lack of volatility, along with a general lack of corporate news.

Sky City was among the standout stocks, up 16c at 538 after media reports that indicated a value of close to 600c for its shares if any takeover bid proceeds.

The casino operator's shareprice shot up as much as $1.23 to a peak of 556c on news that a credible party was doing due diligence, but the shares slipped back to 514c at the end of the week.

"We do know that someone is doing due diligence at the moment, but it's difficult to know if anything will come of that," Hamilton Hindin Greene partner Grant Williamson said. Over 4 million shares were traded today and Mr Williamson said the improvements in the shareprice were rooted in expectation that something would follow from the due diligence.

A reasonable volume of 1.8 million shares in Auckland Airport was traded, with prices rising 2c to 315c – also on back of investors waiting on further details of a takeover bid.

A couple of other blue chips also traded close to their all-time highs, with Fletcher Building up 9c at 1278.

Telecom fell 1c early in the day, but finished the day where it started, at 447. A broker said the company had lost some of the steam injected by the Government's announcement on its three-way split. The New Zealand market movement followed US stocks dipping on Friday as money managers took profits on the last trading day of a strong September. Mr Williamson said that though offshore markets were firmer today, New Zealand stocks reliant on exports were being buffeted again by a firmer exchange rate for the NZ dollar.

Fisher and Paykel Appliances fell 3c and Fisher and Paykel Healthcare fell 5c.

"The New Zealand dollar-related stocks are under some pressure at the moment," he said.

Among the stocks traded, rises outnumbered falls and the turnover totalled 30,813,426 shares valued at $97,845,213.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 17.31 points, or 0.12 per cent, to end at 13,895.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 4.63 points, or 0.30 per cent, to 1526.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 8.09 points, or 0.30 per cent, to 2701.50.

- NZPA