NZ shares gain as F&P has solid first half

NZ shares rose as Fisher & Paykel Healthcare gained, cracking $12 billion in market value after lifting first-half profit.

Wednesday, November 27th 2019, 6:01PM

by BusinessDesk

Fisher & Paykel, which raised its annual earnings outlook in October, was up by 1.6 percent to $21.10 after it said first-half earnings were up 24 percent.

Hamilton Hindin Greene advisor Grant Williamson said the result was “strong” although not unexpected.

“That result was pretty much flagged, so not too much of a surprise, which shows in the small price increase we saw today,” he added.

The S&P/NZX50 50 Index rose by 76.27 points, or 0.7 percent, to 11,120.81, Within the index, 21 stocks rose, 21 fell, and eight were unchanged.

Ryman Healthcare was the index’s biggest gainer, rising 5.1 percent to $14.95.

“A lot of that buying seems to be driven out of Australia and Ryman is expanding quite aggressively in the Victorian market so there is a bit of an Australian flavour to that stock,” Williamson said.

Summerset Group also rose 1.9 percent to $7.69 after it announced that it had approval to build a retirement village in Auckland’s St Johns and confirmed it had bought more land in Christchurch.

Metlifecare was the day's biggest decliner, falling 3.8 percent to $5.86. Williamson said the market was paring back some of the retirement operator’s major gains from yesterday’s MSCI index reweighting.

Big companies making gains today included A2 Milk which rose 2 percent to $15.10, which Williamson said was driven by Australian buyers. Meridian Energy has recovered and closed up by 1.8 percent to $4.48. The energy company’s share price had been knocked around since the announcement last month that the Tiwai Point smelter could close, said Williamson.

Z Energy rose 3.8 percent to $5.17, which Willamson said appeared to be due to bargain hunting. The market is also reacting to news Caltex in Australia is the subject of a takeover bid.

Fletcher Building fell by 2 percent to $5.24, ahead of its annual meeting tomorrow.

“Obviously the Australian building market is under a fair amount of pressure and any convention centre news will be interesting,” Willamson added.

Outside the benchmark index, Cavalier Corporation fell by 5.2 percent to 28 cents after the company provided first-half guidance at its annual meeting today.

The wool producer said first-half revenue for 2020 is expected to be between $61-64 million, from $70 million in the first half of this year, while earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation is expected to be in the range of $1.2-$1.9 million from $4.6 million.

Turners Automotive Group rose by 1.6 percent to $2.58 after the car auction house said group revenue was up by 1 percent to $171 million and underlying net profit before tax had risen by 11 percent to $14.8 million.

Tags: Market Close