New Zealand share prices closed 0.62 percent higher on Tuesday, but volumes were thin in the first trading day of a holiday-shortened week, dealers said. The benchmark NZX-50 index gained 19.93 points to 3,225.13 on a modest turnover of 15.96 million dollars (11.16 million US).
Among the market leaders, Telecom gained eight cents to 2.53 dollars, Fletcher Building was up five cents to 8.00 and Contact Energy rose three cents to 6.09. However, with many investors on holiday only small volumes were traded, which led to sizeable moves among some stocks, Grant Williamson, of Hamilton Hindin Greene, said.
"There's no news in the marketplace, so it's all pretty boring," he said. "Generally markets are firmer offshore, which has helped push our market up and we can expect a continuation of that in this quiet week. Prices usually improve towards the end of December and there could be some book squaring on the last day."
Infratil, which owns Wellington Airport, eased three cents to 1.64 dollars while Auckland Airport and Air New Zealand were unchanged at 2.00 and 1.18 respectively. Among retail stocks, Pumpkin Patch gained a cent to 2.02 and Michael Hill International ended one cent ahead at 0.67, while The Warehouse was unchanged at 4.21 and Kathmandu dropped three cents to 2.05.
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