NZ sharemarket closes with decent rise

The New Zealand sharemarket, having a broad-based rally, charged to one of its highest closes in 13 months with another decent rise.

Monday, March 25th 2024, 6:46PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index’s morning fall to 11,911.9 points belied the coming action. The index turned around strongly in the afternoon and closed at 12,067.03, up 88.41 points or 0.74%.

The market sat at 12,099.74 points for one day on May 19 last year before beginning its descent. Fired up by Fisher and Paykel Healthcare’s earnings upgrade, the index is nearing a high of 12,144.66 points set on Feb 17 last year.

The index has now risen more than 2.5% during the last two trading days. There were 99 gainers and 39 decliners over the whole market on increased volumes of 38.2 million share transactions worth $145m.

Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index had gained 0.6% to 7,816.9 points at 6pm NZ time.

Paul Robertshawe, chief investment officer with Octagon Asset Management, said some of the consumer and business sentiment is not great, and unemployment is likely to go higher, but there is a feeling that the local market may have reached its bottom.

“We have been bumbling along the bottom for two years and if there are some green shoots, then they will be greeted favourably. Some companies are saying they will have a better year from June, and the market does look forward. Some investors are bottom fishing.”

F&P going up

Robertshawe said several stocks, such as KMD Brands, The Warehouse and SkyCity, have bounced off their lows. And when a big stock like Fisher and Paykel is moving, it does have an impact on the market.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, which increased its revenue and profit forecasts last Friday, increased another 38c to $26.42 on trade worth $21.46m – a gain of more than 7% over two trading days.

SkyCity increased 6c or 3% to $2.06; Skellerup gained 9c or 2.09% to $4.40; Port of Tauranga added 9c to $5.28; Tourism Holdings collected 6c or 1.96% to $3.12; Foley Wines picked up 3c or 2.94% to $1.05; and AFT Pharmaceuticals rose 8c or 2.71% to $3.03.

The retail stocks continued to bounce. KMD Brands rose 5c or 9.43% to 58c; Michael Hill gained 2c or 2.7% to 76c; Briscoe Group was up 4c to $4.50; and The Warehouse Group was up 1c to $1.54.

Michael Hill told the market it was moving the Bevilles had office from Melbourne to Brisbane to be near the existing distribution and support centre. Michael Hill is also appealing the New South Wales supreme court judgment in its legal battle with Gispac Pty over the supply of packaging between 2014-18.

The property sector was strong. Stride rose 6c or 4.72% to $1.33; Goodman Trust also increased 6c or 2.7% to $2.28; Argosy was up 3c or 2.65% to $1.16; Precinct Properties collected 3c or 2.54% to $1.21; Investore added 2c or 1.8% to $1.13; Kiwi gained 2c or 2.44% to 84c; and Property for Industry was up 4c to $2.295.

Fletcher Building gained 3c to $4.17 after announcing Nick Traber, who has led the high-performing concrete division, as the acting chief executive of the group.

The previous CEO, Ross Taylor, will stay in a consulting role till Aug 23. Two more Fletcher directors are standing down – Doug McKay at the end of June and Rob McDonald in October at the annual meeting. This follows the resignation of chair, Bruce Hassall.

ANZ Bank, up $1.22 or 3.99% to $31.79, has made a settlement of $57.5m in the class action brought by Phi Finney McDonald in 2021 for interest charged on ANZ personal credit cards between July 1, 2010 and Jan 1, 2019.

Westpac Bank increased 45c to $28.30, and Heartland Group was up 6c or 5.36% to $1.18.

Ebos Group was down $1.02 or 2.87% to $34.58; Ryman Healthcare declined 15c or 3.3% to $4.40; Ventia Services shed 12c or 2.82% to $4.14; PGG Wrightson decreased 5c or 2.31% to $2.11; and Scott Technology was down 8c or 2.86% to $2.72.

Air NZ, down 0.005c to 59.5c, has cancelled the $400m crown standby facility as part of the airline’s recapitalisation package following the covid pandemic. It has appointed ANZ NZ and Japan’s MUFG Bank to syndicate a new revolving standby facility.

Tags: Market Close