NZX50 nears the 13,000 points mark for the first time since 2021

The New Zealand sharemarket staged another strong afternoon turnaround and headed for the 13,000 points mark. But the country’s biggest telco, Spark, continued to drift on a broker downgrade.

Monday, October 21st 2024, 6:31PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index reached a morning low of 12,721.72 but recovered at midday and closed at 12,923.22, up 99.33 points or 0.77%.

The index has now risen nearly 9.7% this year and was last above 13,000 points on Dec 31, 2021, at 13,033.77.

Volumes maintained a healthy level with 76.98 million share transactions worth $192.15m.

'All-time high'

Jeremy Sullivan, investment adviser with Hamilton Hindin Greene, said it was a stable day’s trading with the property sector firmer. “Our all-time high (13,558.19 on Jan 8, 2021) is in sight – the index is just around 5% away.”

He said Forsyth Barr has now set a target price of $2.85 for Spark, down 5.5c or 1.83% to $3. The stock has fallen nearly 40% over the past year.

Synlait Milk declined 3.5c or 8.05% to 40c following the resignation of chief executive Grant Watson who has been in the role for nearly three years and is leaving immediately. The Dairyworks chief executive Tim Carter is taking over until a new appointment is made.

Sullivan said it’s never a good idea that a chief executive leaves with such short notice. Synlait has been through a tumultuous period, and there has been a material change in shareholding (Bright Dairy now holds 65.25%). “I guess there’s always the potential for different views on the way forward.”

Vulcan Steel increased 28c or 3.21% to $9 after reporting business conditions remained soft and deteriorated across most markets, especially in NZ, during the first quarter of the 2025 financial year.

Revenue was down 13% to $263.1m compared with the September quarter last year, operating earnings (ebitda) fell 30% to $33.1m, and sales volume declined 10% to 57,800 tonnes.

Vulcan said the current trading conditions are expected to continue for the remainder of the year, and it has arranged with the banking syndicate to relax existing covenant thresholds for the next 14 months in case the economic recovery in NZ and Australia takes longer to materialise.

An indication of the current state of the NZ economy is that 234 new tractors were sold and registered in September, the lowest number for the month since 2007. Around 400 tractors are normally sold in September.

Other stocks

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was up 63c or 1.7% to $37.64; Infratil gained 25c or 2.05% to $12.47; Ebos Group increased 70c or 1.92% to $37.15; Mainfreight added 57c to $71.97; Freightways collected 17c or 1.73% to $9.97; and Port of Tauranga was up 15c or 2.56% to $6.01.

In the property sector, Vital Healthcare Trust increased 7c or 3.63% to $2; Argosy was up 2.5c or 2.27% to $1.125; Stride collected 3c or 2.21% to $1.39; Investore gained 3c or 2.48% to $1.24; Goodman Trust added 3c to $2.17; and Kiwi was down 2.5c or 2.5% to 97.5c.

In the retail sector, Briscoe gained 9c or 1.78% to $5.14; Michael Hill added 2c or 3.64% to 57c; and The Warehouse was up 2c or 1.85% to $1.10.

Amongst technology stocks, Eroad was up 4c or 4.4% to 95c; Serko increased 16c or 5.71% to $2.96; and Vista Group gained 8c or 2.6% to $3.16.

AFT Pharmaceuticals was up 12c or 3.72% to $3.35 after telling the market it has an agreement with two European partners to complete late-stage research and development for a novel injectable medicine, which remains confidential.

Tourism Holdings improved 11c or 6.01% to $1.94; Napier Port collected 4c or 1.78% to $2.29; Channel Infrastructure increased 5c or 2.67% to $1.92; NZME gained 2c or 1.92% to $1.06; and NZX increased 4c or 2.86% to $1.44.

Other gainers were Third Age Health increasing 9c or 5.14% to $1.84; Rakon adding 4c or 5.71% to 74c; Bremworth collecting 2c or 5.26% to 40c; and TradeWindow up 0.007c or 3.63% to 20c.

SkyCity declined 4c or 2.88% to $1.35; Restaurant Brands shed 9c or 2.37% to $3.70; Being AI was down 3c or 5.17% to 55c; Smartpay fell 5c or 6.67% to 70c; and T&G Global decreased 4c or 2.6% to $1.50.

Genesis Energy, unchanged at $2.07, said in a first-quarter performance report that the Huntly power station demonstrated its flexibility during the winter, with thermal generation of 1281GWh increasing 52% on the previous corresponding period. A third Rankine unit was made available to the market, and coal, gas, and, to a lesser extent, diesel were utilised.

Toronto-based Localcoin has established 67 crypto ATMs in Auckland and Christchurch.

Since launching in Australia a year ago, the company has operated more than 400 ATMs there.

Tags: Market Close