NZ shares tread water

New Zealand's headline share index edged up eight points on Friday but finished the week almost unchanged as wary investors waited for US earnings and a Federal Reserve meeting.

Friday, April 29th 2022, 6:32PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 8 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,928.70. Turnover on the main board was $163 million.

Key US equities indices were up roughly 2% to 3% overnight after Facebook parent Meta impressed investors with a strong profit result.

Greg Main, a wealth management adviser at Jarden, said the NZ market benefited a little from the positive sentiment in the US but was generally just drifting sideways.

“Markets have been focused on US interest rates and with a Fed meeting next week that’s yet another reason to just keep treading water,” he told BusinessDesk.

The next US trading session may be less ecstatic with Amazon reporting underwhelming results and falling in aftermarket trading.

Pushpay Holdings led the local market higher as investors continued to buy shares in the company on news it had been approached by interested buyers.

It rose 5.6% to $1.32 today and is up more than 25% since making the announcement on Tuesday.

The church management platform hasn’t given much detail except to say there had been multiple expressions of interest and it had hired Goldman Sachs to advise it.

As the company is profitable and expects earnings to be above US$60m in 2022, it would be an attractive target for a private equity fund looking to do a leveraged buyout.

Pushpay’s competitors aren’t large enough to buy the company and there isn’t an obvious strategic buyer waiting in the wings.

Main said there was no theme driving sectors higher or lower, rather share prices were shuffling around while investors kept an eye on global economic unrest.

Hallenstein Glasson Holdings rose 3.3% to $6.02, Move Logistics was up 2.9% at $1.43, and Synlait Milk climbed 2.3% to $3.53.

While Fonterra Shareholders' Fund units fell 3.7% to $2.85, AFT Pharmaceuticals dropped 2.7% to $3.60, and Precinct Properties was down 2.6% at $1.52.

The Warehouse Group fell 2% to $3.45 as it gave up some of its index bounce from its inclusion in the NZX 50 yesterday. The retailer has replaced Z Energy in the benchmark index.

NZ Oil & Gas shares were up 2.9% at 52.5 cents after it reported on its activities during the March quarter.

The company is raising $25m and shifting its primary listing to the Australian stock exchange where investors may be more willing to invest in exploration for fossil fuels.

The NZ dollar sank to 65.04 US cents, as the American currency gained, and dropped to 91.26 Australian cents, while gaining more than 1% against the Japanese Yen.

“Reserve Bank of Australia and election nerves will limit Australian dollar gains over the next couple of weeks, but the NZ dollar still looks like the most underweight lamb in the paddock,” said Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst at Oanda.

Tags: Market Close