Market commentaries
WELLINGTON: NZX 50 Index rose, New much Zealand’s of the benchmark gain driven S&P/ by Fletcher Building shares, which lifted on a report Australia’s Wesfarmers has taken a small stake. Mercury NZ led decliners and A2 Milk fell on concerns it could be hurt by rivalry in sales of dairy products with the A2 protein variant.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 10.55 points, or 0.1%, to 8414.77. Within the index, 23 stocks gained, 17 fell and 10 were unchanged. Turnover was $129.7 million. Fletcher rose 8.6% to $6.34. The Sydney Morning Herald cited sources close to Wesfarmers as saying it had bought 3% to 4% of Fletcher and may be considering a full takeover. A 4% holding
would be about 27.9 million shares and there have \ D been no trades of that size this year, although a stake could be built up gradually.
David Price, a broker at Forsyth Barr, said traders were left scratching their heads because a potential bidder would be more likely to creep up to 4.9% — the maximum holding before it must be disclosed.
Forsyth upgraded its rating on Fletcher to ‘‘outperform’’ overnight and Price said ‘‘from an execution point of view it will start rolling out’’ of its problematic Building + Interiors (B+I) unit. Forsyth Barr analysis shows ownership of Fletcher by Australian investors ‘‘is the highest it has ever been’’.
Forsyth Barr also upgraded Metro Performance
Glass, which is not in the NZX 50, to ‘‘outperform’’ overnight. The commercial glass company jumped 3.9% to 81c today, having shed almost twothirds of its value in the past 17 months. In a filing yesterday, Accident Compensation Corp said it had lifted its holding in MetroGlass to 6.6% from 5.3%.
A2 Milk fell 2.5% to $12.31, having soared 57% this year. investors A2 Forsyth than own in Barr the almost next research three mostheld times shows more New Australian shares Zealand in company, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which rose 0.4% to $12.80 yesterday but has fallen 11% this year. Mercury declined 3.8% to $3.26 amid speculation it is another candidate to drop out of the MSCI Global Index in the next round of reweightings. SkyCity Entertainment Group gained 2.1% to
$3.99, Z Energy was up 1.7% to $7.24 and Vector
rose 1.5% to $3.30. Synlait Milk extended its gains, rising 1.3% to $9.38. Market operator NZX rose 0.9% to $1.09. NZX wants to capture New Zealand’s ‘‘natural advantage’’ in the primary sector with a new index ng industry players and build on the early success of its dairy derivatives market, chief executive Mark Peterson told shareholders in the annual meeting in Christchurch yesterday.
A The Australian sharemarket closed higher, after Wall Street rose on easing USRussia tensions over Syria and investors looked for bargains in healthcare and resources.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 13.6
points, 0.23%, at 5829.1 points at 1630 AEST, while the broader All Ordinaries was up 13.3 points,
or 0.22%, at 5924.7 points. Freetoair broadcaster Seven West Media was the big mover, climbing 6.5c, or 12.6%, to 58c after winning Australian cricket broadcast rights in a $1.2 billion, sixyear joint bid with payTV operator Foxtel. Nine Entertainment ended flat at $2.25 after losing the sport it has broadcast for four decades. — BusinessDesk/AAP