NZ shares dip as investors wait on Ebos

The New Zealand sharemarket had a soft ending to the week, and investors were holding off waiting to see what Ebos Group has up its sleeve.

Friday, November 17th 2023, 6:23PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index had its second successive fall and closed at 11,176.97, down 53.9 points or 0.48%, though it had a late rise in the matching session.

The index finished just ahead for the week and has fallen 2.55% this year. There were 58 gainers and 63 decliners on the main board, with 43.29 million shares worth $117.1m changing hands.

ANZ Research has removed its prediction of a further official cash rate hike in February and is now expecting the Reserve Bank to keep its rate on hold for all next year, with a cut in February 2025.

ANZ said recent economic data has been a little mixed, but overall has gone the Reserve Bank’s way, particularly the key labour market numbers.

“The market is itching to price in cuts more aggressively. But cuts remain a distant prospect; indeed, we’ve pushed out our estimate of when they will occur by one quarter,” said ANZ.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said there was some wariness on the local market, and investors may be getting ready for a capital raising from Ebos in the next week or so.

Ebos, the leading Australasian medical products distributor, is in a trading halt on speculation it is lining up Australian pet care and veterinary company Greencross, which operates Animates in NZ and has an overall valuation of $3.5 billion.

Solly said, “Clearly, Ebos is working through something, and we’ll have to wait and see. But investors are building up cash in case things need to be done.” Ebos, no doubt, is looking for another worthwhile transaction to replace the lost $2 billion Chemist Warehouse supply contract.

Global marketer a2 Milk was up a further 15c or 3.61% to $4.30 on trade worth $13.05m after providing a positive trading outlook and is launching an upgraded infant milk formula product in China backed by a strong marketing campaign in December and January.

Developer Winton Land rose 12c or 5.26% to $2.40 after the Macquarie group increased its shareholding to 22.347% from 17.347%.

Infratil declined 17c to $10. In its six-month result, the utilities investor said there were increased earnings at all key businesses it has invested in, particularly CDC Data Centres, which is experiencing an unprecedented demand for cloud and artificial intelligence. CDC is bringing forward 223MW of development.

Online travel provider Serko fell 12c or 2.72% to $4.29 after revising its full-year revenue to $67m-$74m from $63m-$70m.

Auckland International Airport was down 7c to $7.73 on its latest operating figures, which showed a year-on-year 26% in total passengers to 1.483m in September, 90% of pre-covid levels.

Total passengers in October were 1.542m, an increase of 20% compared with the same month last year and 86% of pre-Covid levels.

Other decliners were Spark decreasing 7.5c to $5.025; Freightways down 17c or 2.13% to $7.81; Fletcher Building shedding 6c to $4.50; Napier Port falling 10c or 4.17% to $2.30; and Tourism Holdings also down 10c or 2.86% to $3.40.

Delegat Group fell 15c or 2.04% to $7.20 following its sales and earnings downgrade, Foley Wines declined 3c or 21.5% to $1.17, and Sky TV shed 5c or 1.82% to $2.70.

Argosy, up 2c or 1.8% to $1.13, is selling an industrial property in Auckland’s East Tamaki for $38m, 7.3% above the March book value. Vulcan Steel gained 24c or 3.06% to $8.08.

Medicinal cannabis company Cannasouth was up 0.009c or 5.59% to 17c. Cannasouth is making a one-for-eight rights issue to raise $5.6m and expects full-year revenue of $6m-$10m.

Tags: Market Close