Last year's losing trio claw back some ground

New Zealand shares gained with global equity markets in the absence of local corporate news, with Metro Performance Glass and Sky Network Television rising while Freightways dropped.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 12.05 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 8455.55. Within the index, 23 stocks gained, 15 fell and 12 were unchanged. Turnover was $122 million.

"There's no new fundamental news at all," said Matt Goodson, managing director at Salt Funds Management. "It's really just flow driven on light volumes, not much meaning can be read into price movements at the moment."

"There have been some brokers' stock picks for the year published - every year you see a little rush into those names, at a time of year where the market is almost illiquid," Goodson said. "Give it a few weeks and that will fall out."

MetroGlass led the index higher, rising 2 per cent to $1.03, while Sky TV gained 1.8 per cent to $2.85.

Fletcher Building advanced 1.6 per cent to $7.81. All three stocks suffered last year, with Metro Glass down 48 per cent in 2017 making it the worst performer, Sky TV second-last with a 38 per cent fall, and Fletcher Building declining 28 per cent in the year.

Freightways was the worst performer on the day, dropping 1.4 per cent to $7.61. Trade Me Group fell 1 per cent to $4.79 and Spark dipped 1 per cent to $3.615.

Outside the benchmark index, Trilogy International fell 0.4 per cent to $2.81. It has attracted the interest of Australia's largest ethical investment fund, Australian Ethical Investment, which has lifted its stake in the scented candle and natural beauty products maker above 10 per cent. Trilogy's businesses include its flagship rosehip oil skincare range Trilogy, scented candle maker Ecoya, skincare brand Lanocorp, and distribution business CS & Co.

TIL Logistics Group gained 0.5 per cent to $2.01. The New Plymouth-based freight and logistics company has retained some of the former shareholders of Bethunes Investments after completing a reverse listing transaction.

Shareholders of Bethunes, which changed its name to TIL Logistics last month, had until January 3 to exercise their right to sell their shares to the dominant owner and a total of 35 shareholders with 928 shares in aggregate did so.

The company was granted a waiver from NZX listing rules that require a company to have at least 25 per cent of shares held by 500 members of the public to allow the transaction to proceed and the spokeswoman said it is now working through options to increase the spread of shareholders.