Index heavyweights pull NZ market higher

New Zealand’s main equity index rose more than 1.2% today thanks to index heavyweight stocks having a good day paired with relief the earnings season is coming to an end.

Tuesday, August 30th 2022, 6:00PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 index rose 141.7 points, or 1.23%, to 11,648.65. Turnover on the main board was $97.4 million.

Devon Funds head of retail Greg Smith said the “buoyancy” around heavyweight stocks on the index today had pulled the market significantly higher as well as the relief that earnings season was coming to a close.

“The show’s pretty over now,” he said of the latest earnings season which saw a multitude of NZ companies reporting much better results than expected by the market.

He said index heavyweights that did well today were telecommunications company Spark which was up 2.1% to $5.40 and healthcare manufacturer Fisher & Paykel rose 2.6% to $20.12.

Chorus also climbed 1% to $7.99.

Infant formula company A2 Milk was up 6% to $6.36, and Smith said the stock had significantly helped pull NZ’s market higher today on the back of its surprisingly positive full-year results yesterday.

The company lifted its annual net profit by 52% despite the difficult market conditions that A2 had come up against in the last year.

Childcare operator Evolve Education's shares soared 11.7% to 67 cents on the New Zealand stock exchange in early morning trading following news it's selling the NZ arm of its preschool business for $46m.

The childcare provider announced it had entered into a conditional sale to sell its wholly owned subsidiary, Lollipops Educare Holdings, to Australian private equity firm Anchorage Capital Partners for $46m.

Evolve Education shares ended the day up 16.7% to 70 cents, jumping 10 cents in share price from yesterday.

Genesis Energy announced it was opening a tender today to secure future generation from the Huntly power station as insurance against volatile wholesale electricity markets.

Genesis has asked for registrations of interest in its Market Security Option (MSO) from other generators, retailers or large electricity users.

The energy provider was up 0.9% to $2.93 by early evening. Other energy stocks were mixed today, although generally up.

Meridian Energy was up 0.6% to $4.98, Manawa Energy down 1.7% to $5.96 and Mercury NZ rose 0.9% to $5.93.

Honey manufacturer Comvita was up 2.1% to $3.35 after it announced its intention to acquire up to 96,000 of its own ordinary shares. This is to complete the share buy-back programme the company announced in late May where 204,000 shares were purchased out of the 300,000 shares goal.

Last week, the honey manufacturer reported its second-best earnings, with its net profit jumping up 35% to $12.8m in the year to June 30.

On the currency front, the NZ dollar was sitting at 61.43 US cents at 3pm today, up from 61.13 US cents yesterday.

Tags: Market Close