Market commentary
WELLINGTON: The New Zealand sharemarket finished an eventful week with a small gain despite leading offshore indices falling, and heavyweight Fisher & Paykel Healthcare began its climb back.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index increased 29.54 points or 0.23% to 12,700.17 after hitting an intraday low of 12,595.79.
There were 60 gainers and 70 decliners. In a steady day 51.86 million shares worth $167.08 million were traded, as Auckland city centre workers operated from home.
The feature of the week was a rotation of investment out of highgrowth shares such as technology and into ‘‘cyclical value stocks’’ that have underperformed during the Covid crisis but showing improvement in earnings, such as Fletcher Building.
In the turnaround in investor sentiment, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare plunged 12.2% to $32.43 on Tuesday. The global medical device supplier rose $1.13 or 3.46% to $33.83 and its $41.3 million worth of share transactions drove most of the gain on the local market.
Fletcher Building increased 2c to $5.37. It has gained more than a dollar in the past fortnight after sitting at $4.07 on October 29.
Mainfreight struck the $60 milestone, with $1.25 or 2.13% gain.
Meridian climbed a further 10c or 1.61% to a high of $6.30 and Mercury rose 7c to $6.
Seafood company Sanford recovered 8c to $5.20 after reporting a slump in profit, and Auckland International Airport was up 14c or 1.84% to $7.74.
The Warehouse Group reported improved firstquarter trading and rose 11c or 4.6% to $2.50. Group sales were up 6.3% to $738.5 million compared with the previous corresponding period, with growth at Noel Leeming (11.5%) and Torpedo7 (41.8%) and online sales grew 58%, representing 11.3% of total revenue for the quarter.
Utilities investor Infratil fell 5c to $5.35 after earlier reporting a 50% fall to $27.8 million in net profit for the six months ending September, but operating earnings (ebitdaf) were up 12.4% to $229.5 million.
Pushpay Holdings was down 25c or 3.23% to $7.50; a2 Milk slipped 33c or 2.11% to $15.32; and Serko declined 15c or 2.61% to $5.60.
Some property stocks fell. Argosy was down 3c or 2.04% to $1.44; Kiwi Property fell 1.5c to $1.30, Goodman Property Trust declined 4c to $2.39, Stride declined 4c to $2.28, Property for Industry lost 2.5c to $2.925, and Precinct Properties fell 1c to $1.20.
Cloud accounting firm Xero was down 1.35% to A$121.83 at 5.45pm on the ASX 200 Index after reporting strong growth in its profit the day before.
Mobile engagement provider Plexure Group, seeking a secondary listing on the Australian ASX, has raised $32 million through an institutional placement at an offer price of $1.20 a share, with key customer McDonald’s participating to maintain its 9.9% shareholding.
Plexure's share price fell 15c or 9.68% to $1.34. — The New Zealand Herald