Market commentary

WELLINGTON: Shares in a2 Milk had a rough day yesterday and sank 11% in the morning on news it would not be sending infant formula to the US market soon.

The milk company told the NZX the US Food and Drug Administration was deferring further consideration of the company’s request for enforcement discretion to import infant milk formula products into the US. The shares ended down 7.5% to $5.21.

The S&P/NZX 50 index was flat at 11,752.09. Turnover on the main board was $106.6 million.

Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners, said a2’s shares last week jumped on an Australian news report approval might be imminent and even though a2 was swift to dampen expectations, the shares were still at $5.64 on Friday.

He said the share price was now trickling back to where it had been before the speculation.

Synlait Milk also fell by 1.5% to $3.26 by the end of the day.

Contact Energy was down slightly 0.13% to $7.66 after it announced it had accepted the resignation of big four accounting organisation KPMG, which had been its external auditor since 2005.

Professional services firm Ernst & Young has been appointed the group’s new external auditor.

Other energy stocks across the board had a mixed day — Manawa Energy was up 0.66% to $6.10, Meridian Energy rose 0.19% to $5.25 and Genesis Energy fell 1.9% to $2.92. Mercury was up 2.26% to $6.55.

Telecommunications company Spark fell 0.10% to $5.12. Spark revealed it had had to refund nearly 113,000 customers more than $15 million after they were charged for a wire maintenance service they did not need or could not use or benefit from.

Telco Chorus fell 0.38% to $7.85. Other falls on the index were Vulcan Steel which dropped 2.8% to $9.72, and Chatham Rock Phosphate sank 8.6% to 32c.

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels fell 4.4% to $2.19 after it released its halfyear earnings. It told the market that while the Covid19 pandemic continued to weigh on its accommodation business, it expected to deliver an annual profit on the strength of its property development arm.

CDL Investments, a subsidiary of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, also released its halfyear earnings yesterday and the company’s shares fell 1c to 84c by early evening. CDL chairman Colin Sim said the firm was still determined to match 2021’s fullyear revenue.

Stocks that had a good day yesterday included Move Logistics up 6.7% to $1.27, My Food Bag up 5.1% to 82c and market regulator NZX rose 3.3% to $1.25. —