NZ sharemarket up 0.1%, Rocket Lab soars

The New Zealand sharemarket lacked a real sense of direction but had a small gain, while Rocket Lab was again a star in the United States.

Thursday, November 14th 2024, 6:30PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index recovered some ground in the afternoon and closed at 12,692.94, up 18.45 points or 0.15%, after reaching a morning low of 12,594.34.

Trading was steady, with 29.27 million shares worth $128.53m changing hands.

Rocket Lab

Greg Smith, head of retail with Devon Funds Management, said the local market was a bit choppy while the global markets are feeling the love with the US election result and Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

“We had steady updates from Infratil and Sky TV, and with the potential of the Santa Rally upon us, we could be looking at a double-digit increase in the NZX index for the year, which investors would take.

“But a lot depends on what the Reserve Bank does with the official cash rate later this month,” Smith said.

Rocket Lab surged 28.44% to US$18.83 (NZ$32.08) on the Nasdaq Composite after beating analysts’ estimates for third-quarter earnings. In after-hours trading, the runaway share price cooled to US$18.71. The stock was at US$3.55 on April 15.

Revenue rose 55% to US$104.8m, and Rocket Lab recorded a loss of 10c per share compared with the analysts’ expectation of US$102.3m in sales and 0.11c loss per share. It finished the September quarter with US$292.5m in cash.

Rocket Lab, which signed US$55m in new Electron launch contracts in the third quarter, is forecasting revenue of US$125m-$135m for the fourth quarter – double the amount for the previous corresponding period.

At home

Infratil, up 10c to $12.51, reported a 27.6% increase in revenue to $1.822 billion and a net loss of $206.4m for the six months ending September. It is paying an unimputed interim dividend of 7.25c a share on Dec 10.

The loss compared with a net surplus of $1.1b last year through the revaluation of Infratil’s increased stake in One NZ (formerly Vodafone) and was impacted by a negative $63m of foreign exchange and derivative revaluations.

Infratil’s proportionate operating earnings (ebitdaf) were $506m, up 25%, and it narrowed its full-year ebitdaf guidance to $960m-$1b from $962m-$1.012b.

Smith said looking at the underlying result, Infratil’s proportionate earnings were strong and the One NZ performance was impressive – better than Spark’s.

Sky TV increased 10c or 3.86% to $2.69 after telling shareholders at the annual meeting “we have a firm path and conviction on our dividend guidance of at least 21c per share”.

Sky said New Zealanders collectively watched more than 58.3m hours of Paris Olympic Games coverage, “which is quite a statistic”.

The television network is prioritising the migration to a new satellite by May next year and negotiating a new rights partnership with NZ Rugby and SANZAAR post-2025.

Mercury Energy gained 5.5c to $6.65; a2 Milk rebounded 15c or 2.83% to $5.45; Mainfreight collected 61c to $73.10; Freightways added 10c to $10.50; Westpac rose $1.10 or 3.18% to $35.70; and Napier Port increased 4c or 1.75% to $2.25.

Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund continued climbing, gaining 14c or 2.6% to $5.53. The dairy co-operative, which trades at $4.88, is shifting to the main board. Synlait rose 2c or 5.33% to 39.5c.

Other gainers were Tourism Holdings, collecting 6c or 3.14% to $1.97; Enprise Group up 3c or 4.35% to 72c; NZX, increasing 4c or 2.7% to $1.52; Accordant Group, improving 3c or 5.45% to 58c; Green Cross Health, adding 3c or 3.75% to 83c; and 2 Cheap Cars up 2c or 2.44% to 84c.

Investore, which concentrates on large-format retail buildings such as Countdown supermarkets, was down 4c, or 3.48%, to $1.11 after reporting half-year revenue of $31.19m, up 2.69% and a net profit of $9.66m following a $66.5m loss for the same period last year.

The property company confirmed full-year cash dividend guidance of 6.5c a share which is near the mid-point of its policy of paying between 80-100% of distributable profit.

Among other property stocks, Stride increased 4c or 3.13% to $1.32; Argosy was up 2c or 1.83% to $1.11; Goodman Trust added 2c to $2.14; and Kiwi declined 2c or 2.04% to 96c; Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down 20c to $37; Ebos Group declined 35c to $37.20; Fletcher Building was down 5c to $3.15; Vulcan Steel decreased 14c to $8.40; PaySauce shed 1.5c or 6.98% to 20c; and Tower was down 3c or 2.26 to $1.30.

AFT Pharmaceuticals declined 7c or 2.75% to $2.48; Allied Farmers was down 2c or 2.5% to 78c; Private Land and Property Fund eased 4c or 2.94% to $1.32; TradeWindow fell 2.5c or 9.62% to 23.5; and South Port NZ shed 12c or 2.26% to $5.20.

Tags: Market Close