NZ shares flat but THL bounces on profit upgrade

New Zealand shares moved sideways with a trading update from Tourism Holdings and Oceania Healthcare’s annual general meeting giving investors something to trade on.

Thursday, June 24th 2021, 6:08PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 11.93 points, or 0.1%, to 12,586.89 with the majority of stocks declining. Turnover was $141.6 million.

Movements in offshore markets were subdued overnight with limited moves across equity, bond and currency markets.

NZ’s share market was split between gainers and decliners, with Tourism Holdings making the largest move as it climbed 3.6% to $2.60.

The campervan rental firm had warned investors to expect a full year loss between $14m and $18m, but today said the net loss would “be on the lower side of that range”. Debt had been expected to climb as high as $90m but will be approximately $50m in the year ending June 30, largely due to a payment for new vehicles in the United States being pushed into the next financial year.

Tourism Holdings said it was unable to give earnings guidance for 2022 until it had a chance to assess the impact of the trans-Tasman bubble in late August or early September.

Fellow travel-related stock, Serko also gained 3.2% at $7.84.

Oceania Healthcare moved in the opposite direction, dropping 1.4% to $1.44 after the retirement village operator held its annual general meeting.

Chair Elizabeth Coutts noted there had been increased scrutiny of the retirement village sector, with the Retirement Commissioner calling for an urgent review of the retirement villages legislative framework. Coutts said this was “unnecessary and excessive”.

Property-related stocks were also weaker: Argosy Property fell 2.6% to $1.52, Summerset Group was down 0.7% at $13.30, and Kiwi Property Group slipped 0.4% to $1.17.

Vista Group International finished the day down 1.2% at $2.43, despite trading higher for most of the session. The cinema software firm told investors to expect positive cash flow in the second half of 2021.

As cinemas progressively reopen around the world, cashflow is steadily improving and average monthly cash burn will now be below $2m for the six months ending June.

Westpac Bank shares also took a tumble as the Australian bank announced it wouldn’t be selling its NZ arm. The stock closed down 1.6% at $27.70 on the NZX.

Group chief executive Peter King said a demerger was not in the best interest of shareholders and the bank would look to improve its NZ services instead.

The New Zealand dollar continued to recover from its sell-off last week, today managing to get back above 70 US cents, having rallied half a US cent in the past 24 hours.

The kiwi dollar was trading at 70.50 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, up from 69.98 cents yesterday.

The trade-weighted index was at 74.21 at 3pm, from 73.74 yesterday. The kiwi traded at 93.06 Australian cents from 92.80, 78.24 yen from 77.56 yen, 59.12 euro cents from 58.69 cents, 50.48 British pence from 50.24 pence, and 4.5660 Chinese yuan from 4.5347 yuan.

Tags: Market Close