Market commentaries
WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares gained yesterday as Comvita and a2 Milk Co recovered from selling, while Air New Zealand and Steel & Tube
Holdings fell.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 47.63 points to
8638.4. Within the index, 32 stocks rose, 13 fell and five were unchanged. Turnover was $157 million.
Comvita led the index higher, up 2.8% to $5.96.
The manuka honey company’s shares had been down 14% since Monday, when it pulled out of talks with an unnamed third party looking to take it over.
‘‘That stock has been plagued with disappoint ment, downgrade upon downgrade, so they’re going to have to do a lot of work to regain the market’s confidence,’’ Forsyth Barr broker David Price said.
A2 Milk gained 2.6% to $10.94. The stock, one X of the most volatile on the index, also h1a3 d a turbulent week. Its shares slumped 13% last week and a further 9.3% in the first half of this week after it missed expectations, but rebounded on Thursday and continued to make up lost ground yesterday.
Spark New Zealand rose 2.5% to $3.55. It expects annual earnings to fall by as much as 2.5% this year as it brings forward restructuring costs and accelerates its ‘‘Quantum programme’’ to transform the company into the operator with the lowest costs.
Synlait Milk gained 2.2% to $10.38, and Tourism Holdings rose 1.7% to $6.61.
Air NZ was the worst performer, down 2.3% to
$3.225. SkyCity Entertainment Group lost 2% to $3.92 and Sanford fell 1.2% to $7.7.5
Outside the benchmark index, Steel & Tube dropped 4.3% to $1.55. The stock has dropped 22% this week following a significant downgrade. ‘It’s yet another company in a sector where, if you plot building activity it’s been going one way for a period of time, and if you plot Metro Glass, Steel & Tube, Fletcher Building on the same graph they’ll be going inversely proportional the other way,’’ Mr Price said.
‘‘None of them have covered themselves in any glory, at a time when they really should be.’’
The Australian sharemarket closed flat yesterday. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 was down 0.07%, to 6032.8 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 0.05% to 6140.9. US and European markets fell after US President Donald Trump cancelled his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The local market was flat with a lack of marketmoving Australian Stock Report head of research Chris Conway said. One of the day’s biggest stories — Wesfarmers announcing it was ending its UK hardware ambitions by selling the Homebase chain it bought in 2016 — had a minimal impact. The stock rose 41c to $45.52. Energy stocks were among the worst performers after growing concerns the world’s major oilexporting nations could lift output in June drove crude prices down by more than 1% overnight. Woodside Petroleum lost 2.2% to $32.86 and Oil Search shed 1.3% to $8.21. The mining sector was also weaker. BHP Billiton fell 2.5% to $33.07, while Rio Tinto shed 0.9% to $83.17. In the telcos, Telstra rose 2.9% to $2.87, Vocus Group gained 2.5% to $2.44 and TPG Telecom rose 1.8% to $5.53. National turnover was 2.9 billion securities traded worth $A7 billion.