Mainfreight surges to $83

Two of the biggest stocks on New Zealand’s benchmark index, Mainfreight and Ryman Healthcare had near 4% share price surges after both firms hosted upbeat annual general meetings.

Thursday, July 29th 2021, 6:06PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index jumped 133.5 points, or 1.1%, to 12,728.85. Turnover was $144 million.

Ryman Healthcare told shareholders at its annual general meeting this morning that the June quarter had been its best on record with cash receipts up 82% at $403m.

The retirement village operator also announced it had purchased a 13th site in Melbourne. Ryman has five villages operating in Victoria and has started building at two other sites.

Peter McIntyre, an adviser at Craigs Investment Partners, said the solid result had given the share price a boost. Shares in the company climbed 3.9% to $12.95 today, having fallen more than 3% across the past three sessions.

“A number of investors have said ‘enough is enough, let’s just buy that stock’ as it had been sold off a little prior to the result,” he told BusinessDesk.

Other aged care stocks were mixed, Oceania Healthcare climbed 2.7% to $1.53, Arvida Group was up 1% at $2.12, but Summerset Group Holdings fell 0.3% to $13.03.

Mainfreight – which also held an AGM today – leapt 4.6% to a new all-time high of $83.

Pacific Edge's share price also jumped after it reported laboratory throughput had more than doubled since the same time last year, while cash receipts had more than tripled.

McIntyre said the absence of any dollar values in the release made it hard to work out its significance, but investors had responded positively – shares were up 2.5% at $1.25.

Embattled infant formula exporter, A2 Milk appeared to find a share price floor after days of sustained decline. It rallied 2.4% to $6.52 today.

“Welcome to the world of A2, it gets beaten up and then it comes back and gets beaten up again,” McIntyre said.

He said since the firm has no debt and strong cash flows, investors were looking to buy the stock whenever they perceived it to have dipped to a good value price.

Fast food retailer Restaurant Brands climbed 0.7% to $15.89 after reporting second quarter sales were up more than 50% on the previous comparable period, which had been negatively affected by the pandemic.

“The increase in sales of $97.6m was as a result of a recovery from prior year’s covid-19 trading restrictions, coupled with the inclusion of trading for the California acquisition, 11 additional stores in Australia, and strong same store sales growth in all regions,” the company said.

Z Energy had another strong day, climbing 2.4% to $3, and is now up more than 18% from its year-to-date low in June. McIntyre said the market was getting more confident about its capital management.

The kiwi dollar was trading at 69.54 US cents by 3pm in Wellington, down from 69.63 cents yesterday.

The trade-weighted index was at 73.82 at 3pm, from 74.03 yesterday. The kiwi traded at 94.41 Australian cents from 94.57 cents, 76.32 yen from 76.49 yen, 58.69 euro cents from 58.90 cents, 49.97 British pence from 50.15 pence, and 4.5096 Chinese yuan from 4.5278 yuan.

Tags: Market Close