Two small shares add some market drama

New Zealand's sharemarket finished the week flat as Eroad tumbled after an executive resignation and My Food Bag bounced on a revenue increase.

Friday, April 8th 2022, 5:47PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 9.6 points, or 0.1%, to 12,066.27. Turnover was $164 million.

Two smaller companies injected some drama into the otherwise quiet day, shares in Eroad plunged almost 15% after its founder and chief executive unexpectedly resigned.

Steven Newman co-founded sat-nav company Navman before moving to Eroad to become chief executive in 2007 but resigned today with immediate effect and no explanation.

Board chair Graham Stuart declined to comment to BusinessDesk this morning, saying he would prefer to address Eroad staff first.

Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partner, said this had spooked investors and triggered the sharp share price reaction.

On the other side of the board, My Food Bag shares jumped almost 15%, to $1.02, after it said it will report revenue up 1.7% at $194 million in the 2022 financial year.

The stock had fallen as low as 85 cents with investors concerned that inflation and the omicron outbreak would hit the company harder than most.

My Food Bag said these factors had dampened fourth-quarter financial performance but have “largely been alleviated” in recent weeks, as case numbers have started to reduce in Auckland.

The meal kit company’s full year revenue will be up $7.5m on what it forecast at its initial public offering, but higher costs mean that earnings and net profit will be unchanged.

An explanation for Move Logistics' surprise 15% bounce last week emerged today when NAOS Asset Management reported it bought roughly $2.4m of shares last Wednesday.

The Australian fund manager – which specialises in undervalued emerging companies – now owns an 8.4% stake in the logistics firm.

Other stocks with significant gains today included Plexure Group, which jumped 5%, Ryman Healthcare, up 2.9% at $9.32, and Restaurant Brands NZ which rose 2.2% to $13.90.

On the downside, Pacific Edge dropped 4% to 96 cents after mounting a recent recovery.

The gap between Air New Zealand's ordinary shares and rights tightened significantly after rights spent most of yesterday trading at an irrational discount.

Shares climbed 1.3% to 80 cents while rights dropped 1.8% to 50 cents –– which is the equivalent to paying 78 cents per Air NZ share once exercised.

The NZ dollar was trading at 68.84 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, down from 69.06 cents yesterday.

Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda, said there was a risk the NZ dollar could fall further next week if the Reserve Bank of New Zealand doesn’t raise the official cash rate 50-basis-points, or if their commentary is “perceived as not hawkish enough”.

Tags: Market Close