NZ sharemarket changes direction, up 1.1% on more positive results
The New Zealand sharemarket bounced back with a gain of more than 1%, supported by a strong recovery in the property sector and improved company results.
Wednesday, February 26th 2025, 6:40PM
by BusinessDesk
The S&P/NZX 50 Index began its climb at midday and closed at 12,452.46, up 145.19 points or 1.18%.
Trading was solid, with 63.9 million shares worth $261.8m changing hands.
'Recovery from the undue sell-off'
Matt Goodson, managing director with Salt Funds Management, said the local market was aggressively sold off in the close the day before.
“Half of today’s gain was the recovery from the undue sell-off, and the rest was a genuine bounce. The property sector was unduly hard hit by falling 1.9%, and the sector got it all back.”
Goodson said there was a slightly better results day, with Scales Corp and Vector reporting solid earnings. But Spark continued to sell-off from its weak result.
“We thought it was poor quality.”
The property sector was up 2.22%, with Investore rising 10c or 9.9% to $1.11, Vital Healthcare Trust increasing 5.5c or 3.17% to $1.79, and Stride gaining 3c or 2.46% to $1.25.
Argosy added 3c or 3.09% to $1; Property for Industry increased 7c or 3.41% to $2.12; Precinct Properties gained 3c or 2.63% to $1.17; and Kiwi Property was up 1.5c to 90.5c.
Scales Corp gained 8c or 1.99% to $4.10 after reporting full-year revenue of $584.6m, up 3%, and net profit of $30.72m compared with $5.2m in 2023.
Scales said the global proteins division produced a strong result during a period of expansion, horticulture’s performance is returning to more normal levels, and logistics generated a record result supported by higher ocean and air freight volumes.
The company is forecasting underlying net profit of $35m-$40m for the 2025 financial year.
Vector Increased 18c or 4.8% to $3.93 after reporting a strong six-month result, with revenue up 11.5% to $560.5m and net profit rising 405.6% to $124.39m. It is paying an interim dividend of 12c a share on March 31.
Vector’s chief executive since 2008 Simon McKenzie is stepping down at the end of June but will remain a director of Bluecurrent metering.
Other stocks
NZME rose 16c or 15.38% to $1.20 after reporting full-year revenue of $350.63m, up 0.9%, and a net loss of $16.04m following a $24m non-cash impairment of intangible assets. It is paying a final dividend of 6c a share on March 31.
Real estate platform OneRoof was the standout performer, providing operating earnings (ebitda) of $2.7m compared with the previous year’s loss.
NZME said OneRoof delivered 30% digital revenue growth in January and February, and, subject to the continuing improvement in advertising demand, it expects to deliver improved operating results this year.
Ebos Group increased $1.28 or 3.39% to $39.01; Contact Energy was up 18c or 2.04% to $8.99; a2 Milk gained 20c or 2.32% to $8.81; Infratil added 16.5c to $10.50; Skellerup improved 21c or 4.29% to $5.11; and Freightways was up 20c or 1.85% to $11.
Other gainers were Mainfreight, up $1.35 or 2.01% to $68.39; ANZ Bank, increasing 83c or 2.58% to $32.95; Gentrack, adding 19c or 1.73% to $11.20; PGG Wrightson, rising 19c or 9.5% to $2.19; and Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund improving 14c or 2.77% to $5.20.
Vulcan Steel rose 56c or 6.9% to $8.68 on light trading of 21,000 shares; Serko increased 18c or 5.22% to $3.63; Steel & Tube gained 3c or 3.7% to 84c; Oceania Healthcare was up 3c or 4.55% to 69c; Comvita improved 3c or 4.11% to 76c; and NZX added 5c or 3.14% to $1.64.
Meridian Energy was up 5.5c to $5.785 after reporting a net loss of $121m for the six months ending December compared with a profit of $191m in the previous corresponding period. Revenue was $2.255 billion, up 7%.
Meridian CEO Neal Barclay said: “We took a hit for New Zealand. The operating environment for the first half was as tough as I can recall experiencing.”
The result was heavily impacted by the cost of hedge contracts for winter 2024 in the face of 1 in 90- year record low inflows and an unexpected and unprecedented shortage of domestic gas, Meridian said.
Spark was down 4.5c or 1.96% to $2.255 on trade worth $114.16m; Scott Technology declined 7c or 3.33% to $2.03; ikeGPS decreased 4c or 4.88% to 78c; AFT Pharmaceuticals shed 5c or 1.79% to $2.75; and Blackpearl Group fell 6c or 7.5% to 74c.
Michael Hill International, unchanged at 50c, told the market that its chief executive of seven years, Daniel Bracken, died suddenly as a result of an adverse reaction to medical treatment.
Seeka was up 6c or 1.88% to $3.26 after declaring a fully imputed dividend of 5c a share payable on April 15.
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