Small stocks lead NZ shares higher

Small stocks lead the New Zealand share market higher on light volumes with Skellerup Holdings hitting an all-time high.

Wednesday, April 28th 2021, 7:04PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 25.62 points, or 0.2%, to 12,646.14. Within the index, 26 stocks fell, 22 rose and two were unchanged. Turnover was $168 million.

Agriculture and industrial supplier Skellerup Holdings reached a record, up 4.5% at $4.62, as investors continue to react to last week’s earnings upgrade.

The stock was followed by Vista Group International, up 3.1% at $2.30, Kathmandu Holdings which rose 2.9% to $1.41, and Summerset Group Holdings up 2.3% at $12.39. All moves were on lighter than usual volume.

Summerset expects to get consent to build its first Australian village soon and will then immediately start earthworks on the site, chair Rob Campbell told the annual shareholders' meeting today.

AFT Pharmaceuticals had the day’s biggest gain as it leapt 12.5% on the news it signed a licensing deal with America’s third biggest injectable medicine supplier, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, for its Maxigesic intravenous drip.

The deal entitles AFT to an upfront payment of $26m in addition to profit sharing and milestone payments. For example, once the Maxigesic IV is approved by the US authorities AFT will pocket an additional $3.6m.

This continues AFT’s efforts to target the American medicinal market and the nation joins Hong Kong, Ecuador, Europe, and Thailand in having agreements for Maxigesic IV distribution.

Another minnow stock, Wellington Drive Technologies, rose 7.3% to 8.8 cents as it said it had returned to profitability and forecast a record 2021 revenue in the range US$41m to US$46m.

Trustpower said it had received several non-binding offers for the retail side of its electricity business, and is in the process of deciding who will purchase their 421,000 customers.

The company has been losing retail customers since August 2018 and is seeking to pivot to a solely generation business. Its share price rose 1.5% to $8.80 on market today.

Restaurant Brands first quarter sales jumped by 29.8% to $259.7m in the three months ended March 31 from $200.1m a year earlier, including a $37.2m kicker from the 69 Californian KFC stores bought last year. Its share price was unchanged at $13.09.

Sky Network Television declined 1.1% to 17.4 cents. The pay TV operator today announced the departure of two executives as chief executive Sophie Moloney signalled “changes to the leadership approach”.

Stock market operator NZX fell 1.4% to $2.07, after getting a share price bump from its first quarter update yesterday. Forsyth Barr analysts downgraded the stock from ‘outperform’ to ‘neutral’ as they saw it as having reached a fair price.

The kiwi dollar was trading 72.09 US cents at 5pm in Wellington, down from 72.27 cents yesterday.

The trade-weighted index was at 75.05 at 5pm, from 75.09 yesterday. The kiwi traded at 93.07 Australian cents from 92.69 cents, 78.49 yen from 78.24 yen, 59.72 euro cents from 59.85 cents, 51.91 British pence from 52.02 pence, and 4.6728 Chinese yuan from 4.6828 yuan.

Tags: Market Close