Pushpay leads stock market higher

Pushpay led the stock market higher on an analyst upgrade and as tech stocks on Wall Street rebounded following extended selling.

Wednesday, September 23rd 2020, 7:23PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 95.40 points, or 0.8 percent, to 11,704.62. Within the index, 16 stocks rose, 25 fell and nine were unchanged. Turnover was $220.2 million.

Wall Street stocks halted a three-week losing streak on Tuesday, led by technology giant Amazon, after investment strategy company Bernstein upgraded the stock to ‘outperform’ saying it will continue to benefit from new customers accrued during the pandemic.

The S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.7 percent, providing an encouraging lead to Asian markets.

Local tech company Pushpay Holdings led the NZX 50 higher, rising 5.8 percent to $8.20, spurred on by another analyst's view.

Research firm Jarden upgraded the stock to ‘outperform’ and hiked its target price to $9.30, adding a hefty $2.76 to its previous target.

“Pushpay was always going to be strong today because the US tech sector had a good night and it shares that thematic, but it will have been helpful to have a broker push through an upgrade,” said Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners.

The analysts said in a note they expect three years of growth to be compressed into one, bringing a 55 percent increase in donation volume and corporate earnings growth of 128 percent.

“FY21 will be a remarkable year in Pushpay’s trajectory, with the shift to digital donations accelerating significantly, and its platform becoming indispensable to clients,” they wrote.

Other pandemic beneficiaries also made gains, A2 Milk Co rose 3.5 percent to $18.26 and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 0.6 percent to $32.60.

Kathmandu Holdings saw the day’s biggest decline after reporting covid-19 store closures and the pandemic's impact on retail sales cost it about $135 million in lost revenue in the past year. Its share price dropped 5.5 percent to $1.21 but had gained ahead of the result.

“It does look pretty ugly if you compare it to where it would’ve been, but we actually thought it was a half decent result given the backdrop,” Lister said.

Oceania Healthcare gained ahead of its annual general meeting tomorrow, rising 1.9 percent to $1.05. Lister said there was a chance of seeing a positive trading update due to strength in the housing market.

In currency markets, the kiwi dollar had been falling ahead of the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy review. While traders were expecting the bank to hold the current policy settings, the announcement held a small surprise with the central bank planning to implement a direct funding for lending programme this year.

The news saw the kiwi temporarily jump 30 points to a high of 66.47 US cents and up 40 points against the Australian dollar.

But excitement wore off and the kiwi was trading at 66.11 US cents, down from 66.71 cents yesterday, and 92.73 Australian cents up from 92.37 cents, at 5pm in Wellington.

The trade-weighted index was at 71.45 at 5pm, from 71.74 yesterday. The kiwi traded at 69.46 yen from 69.73 yen, 56.59 euro cents from 56.69 cents, 51.97 British pence from 52.04 pence, and 4.4915 Chinese yuan from 4.5263 yuan.

Tags: Market Close