Wellington, New Zealand, June 26, 2006--Troubled carpet-maker Feltex dominated trading in an otherwise listless New Zealand sharemarket today.
Feltex shares dropped in value by a third, back 12 cents to 24 on a hefty $1.3m turnover, following a trading halt on Friday.
"Everyone was concerned this morning as to where to place their bid and there was one small trade as low as 17c,'' said Greenslades broker Paul Valk.
Feltex requested Friday's halt in the trading of its shares after a newspaper story said it was on its knees, had broken banking covenants and needed fresh capital.
Feltex later confirmed it was talking to a potential cornerstone investor.
Overall, the benchmark NZX-50 gross index was up 3.96 points to 3587.86, with the NZX-All index down 0.56 points to 1028.60.
Trading was dominated by Telecom. which took a little over a third of the $60m total turnover.
Telecom fell 3c to 410, after hitting a 13-year low of $4.06 on Wednesday.
Fletcher Building sprang back above the $9 level, up 8c to 905, following speculation of more takeover activity in its sector in Australia.
Among the other leaders, energy company Contact was up 7c to 742, Auckland Airport was up 4c to 218 after releasing latest visitor numbers of Friday, and casino operator Sky City was down 8c to 540.
Mainfreight was back 5c to 535 as the company announced it was looking offshore for possible new acquisitions.
Hellaby lost 10c to 485 as it announced its $50 million capital notes issue on the NZX debt market had been oversubscribed. Funds would be used to pay off debt, fund new acquisitions and future growth.
GPG was down 4c to 246 as the company closed its one for ten bonus share issue today.
Mike Pero was up 8c to an alltime high of 108 as the company's two major shareholders, NZ Finance and Liberty, announced a takeover offer. Turnover was thin. "There's not a lot left these days,'' Valk said.
Falls narrowly outweighed rises by 48 to 44 on 136 stocks traded.
