Market commentary

WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares were mixed in light trading before next week’s major index reweighting. Gains were led by the retirement sector and A2 Milk Co, while Heartland Bank and Fletcher Building dropped.

The S&P/NZX50 Index rose 25.24 points, or 0.3%, to 8,619.83. Within the index, 20 stocks gained, 21 fell and nine were unchanged. Turnover was $110.5 million.

‘‘These MSCI changes which get announced on the 14th are holding a spell over the market at the moment,’’ Peter McIntyre, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners, said.

‘‘It’s a bit directionless in that period prior to reporting season. The market is trading up without a lot of volume running through. There’s not a lot of volume in the stocks leading the gainers or decliners.’’

The retirement sector led gainers yesterday. Ryman Healthcare was up 3.1% to $10.99, Metlifecare rose 1.9% to $5.91, and Summerset Group advanced 1.6% to $7.18.

‘‘Those three have performed exceptionally well today, though a lot of them are trading on lightish volume,’’ Mr McIntyre said. ‘‘There’s no real reason why they’re trading up but we can potentially put it down to changes in the MSCI that might happen.’’

A2 Milk rose 1.1% to $12.89 and New Zealand Refining Co gained 0.8% to $2.41.

Heartland Bank was the worst performer, down 1.7% to $1.75.

Fletcher Building dropped 1.2% to $6.45. The company completed the institutional component of its $750 million capital raise last month, generating gross proceeds of $515 million, and the retail component of Fletcher’s capital raise opened on April 23 and closes tomorrow.

The bookbuild will be interesting for those entitlements that weren’t taken up for Fletchers,’’ Mr McIntyre said. ‘‘It has probably surprised a few where it has been trading, that exentitlement price probably comes out around $6.15, so it has been trading above that. Obviously, it has been getting good support via institutions wanting to top up, more on that value proposition for Fletchers.’’

Vector dipped 0.6% to $3.21. Chairman Michael Stiassny said he would not seek reelection at this year’s annual meeting because he no longer has the support of controlling shareholder Entrust Trustees, which owns 75.1% of Vector and represents its electricity network customers.

Scales Corp gained 0.2% to $4.76. After the market closed, Scales announced it has agreed to sell its cold storage businesses for $151.4 million to Emergent Cold.

On the Australian sharemarket yesterday, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 16.10 points (0.26%) to 6108.00 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index gained 21.20 points (0.34%) to 6204.40. — BusinessDesk