NZ sharemarket gains nearly 1%, Pushpay bids farewell to NZX

The New Zealand sharemarket, well supported by the industrial and energy stocks, came alive with a strong afternoon recovery and a gain of nearly 1% on busy trading.

Wednesday, May 10th 2023, 6:29PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index first fell to an intraday low of 11,861.65 before bouncing back and closing at 11,987.3, up 97.69 points or 0.82%. The index’s industrial sector increased by 1.6% and energy by 2.8%.

There were 75 gainers and 59 decliners over the whole market on increased volume of 67.18 million share transactions worth $229.34m.

The trade was dominated by Pushpay Holdings, 31.69m shares worth $44.75m, as the software firm disappeared from the NZX main board.

Jeremy Sullivan, an investment advisor with Hamilton Hindin Greene, said: “We have had a positive day with the industrials doing the heavy lifting. They were stocks that went down last week and have now come back.”

Mainfreight rose $1.47 or 2.1% to $71.49; Fletcher Building was up 13c or 2.81% to $4.75; Port of Tauranga rose 20c or 3.15% to $6.55; Napier Port gained 9c or 3.63% to $2.57; Channel Infrastructure increased 4c or 2.8% to $1.47; and Skellerup Holdings added 5c to $4.85.

Mercury Energy gained 10.5c to $6.595; Meridian was up 6.5c to $5.515; Genesis increased 5c or 1.84% to $2.77; and Manawa collected 4c to $4.94.

Consumer discretionary stocks also did well. Ebos Group increased 79c or 1.78% to $45.29; Restaurant Brands was up 23c or 3.11% to $7.63; a2 Milk gained 8c to $5.68; and Tourism Holdings recovered 8c or 2.08% to $3.93.

Auckland International Airport, up 9c to $8.84, has closed its five-and-a-half-year bond issue at $150m, with an interest rate of 5.29% a year. The bonds will be issued next Wednesday.

Turners Automotive gained 4c to $3.44 after telling the market it is on track for a slightly improved full-year profit before tax of $44m compared with $43.1m for the 2022 financial year.

Turners said there was no significant change to trading in the fourth quarter – car sales are holding up, market share continues to grow, and the loan book is stable with arrears improving in February after an expected deterioration in December and January.

Air New Zealand was up 0.005c to 75.5c after telling guests at the Trenz travel trade event in Christchurch that it will be spending $3.5 billion on new aircraft – eight 787-9 Dreamliners and five Airbus A320neos – and refurbishing 14 Boeing 787 planes over the next five years, bringing a combined 4.5m seats on to 39 routes.

Other gainers were SkyCity Entertainment collecting 4c or 1.78% to $2.29; Foley Wines up 3c or 2.31% to $1.33; Rakon adding 2c or 1.89% to $1.08; Seeka up 5c or 1.92% to $2.65; and Carbon Fund rising 9c or 5.33% to $1.78.

Steel & Tube gained 2c or 1.94% to $1.05 after telling the market that second-half volumes are expected to fall 10-15% compared with the first half because of the recessionary operating environment.

Full-year guidance for earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) is now $28m-$32m, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) $48m-$52m. In the previous year, Steel & Tube’s Ebit was $47.6m and Ebitda was $66.6m.

Steel & Tube’s revenue for the first 10 months of the 2023 financial year was $489m, slightly ahead of $479.3m for the previous corresponding period.

Chorus declined 8.5c to $8.61; Comvita fell 8c or 2.62% to $2.97; Vulcan Steel shed 16c or 1.96% to $8.01; Michael Hill fell 5c or 4.5% to $1.06; and Tower was down 1.5c or 2.59% to 56.5c.

Other decliners were NZME down 2c or 1.87% to $1.05; Move Logistics decreasing 5c or 5.26% to 90c, and Accordant Group falling 8c or 4.91% to $1.55.

Good Spirits Hospitality tumbled 0.002c or 8% to 2.3c after arranging, for the second time, with its lender Pacific Dawn to defer the interest payment for the March quarter. The payment date was extended to next Tuesday.

Sullivan said it’s not looking very good for Good Spirits. “It has $32m debt and a market capitalisation of $1.32m. Listed shell companies are worth around $3m. I guess the debt holder could take control of the remaining assets and the shareholders will miss out.”

Medicinal cannabis company Cannasouth, unchanged at 29c, has launched its $9m capital raise to its own and Eqalis shareholders, and it must reach $7m by June 9 to satisfy the conditions of the merger.

Cannasouth has also launched a general retail offer with $5.1m already committed.

Tags: Market Close