Market commentary

WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares inched up, with Synlait Milk touching records, A2 Milk gaining after Synlait’s positive earnings and New Zealand Refining recovering.

The S&P/NZX50 Index rose 5.82 points, or 0.08%, to 7764.53. Within the index, 19 stocks rose, 19 fell and 12 were unchanged. Turnover was $157.6 million.

Synlait Milk led the index, up 5.5% to $5.54. The shares rose to a record high on intraday trading after the company posted an 11% gain in fullyear profit to $38 million and flagged further growth this year while signalling a move into branded consumer goods.

‘‘It certainly beat our expectations . . . ,’’ said Peter McIntyre, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners. (see story page 16)

A2 Milk Co also gained, up 0.9% to $5.89. The stock has gained 174% this year, making it the best performer on the index.

‘‘It’s been breaking into new barriers all its trading life, a lot of analysts have got a really good view of it particularly after the presentation in Hong Kong and that’s why it went through that $6 range, and it’s settling down again. It’s a news flowdriven stock,’’ Mr McIntyre said.

New Zealand Refining bounced after yesterday’s selling, up 2.1% to $2.44. On Sunday, it announced a pipeline leak had disrupted jet fuel supplies at Auckland International Airport.

Air New Zealand dipped 0.5% to $3.20. Its domestic and international flights have been disrupted, as the shutdown is limiting available jet fuel to about 30% of normal usage.

Mr McIntyre said some investors were using stocks with good liquidity to change their positions before the election, with strong trading in A2 Milk as well as stocks such as Spark New Zealand, Vector, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Contact Energy yesterday.

Spark rose 0.3% to $3.82, while Contact fell 0.9% to $5.42, Fisher & Paykel dropped 1.1% to $12.15 and Vector declined 1.8% to $3.24.

Metro Performance Glass was the worst performer, down 2.9% to $1.02, while CBL Corp fell 1.4% to $2.86

Outside the benchmark index, New Zealand Oil and Gas dropped 1.3% to 74c.

OG Oil & Gas, the oil and gas division of Ofer Global Group, is pursuing a partial takeover of NZOG to keep the local energy explorer’s NZX listing and the access to future capital it provides. The Ofer unit has offered 77c per share for a maximum of 70% of NZOG to trump a rival bid by Zeta Resources.

‘‘Both companies have different outlooks for how they see the company, one wanting to return capital and the other looking at future exploration opportunities,’’ Mr McIntyre said. ‘‘It’s not really surprising the share price is down, some that are not wanting to end up with a partial holding are probably using it as an opportunity to exit. In saying that, it’s on really light volume, so it’s neither here nor there really.’’ — BusinessDesk