Overseas buoyancy rubs off on bourse
Contact continues relief rally as investors prepare for bulk of reporting season
New Zealand shares gained, with Port of Tauranga, Metlifecare and Contact Energy rising, while stock market operator NZX dropped after posting its earnings.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index advanced 15.39 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 7150.89. Within the index, 26 stocks rose, 17 fell and seven were unchanged. Turnover was $126.93 million.
“It’s a bit of a continuation of a theme — some good strong days offshore, we’ve followed most of the day, so it’s a broad-brush rise today,” said David Price, broker at Forsyth Barr. “It wasn’t particularly large, the real brunt of reporting season is next week. You tend to get a bit of a flurry in the morning off the back of the results, conference calls and meetings following on.”
Port of Tauranga Metlifecare Vista Group In-
to $4.45, cent to $5.50, and rose 2.3 per cent gained 1.7 per $5.59.
NZX
advanced 1.6 per cent to
Contact Energy
rose 1.2 per cent to $4.93. On Monday, it posted a 12 per cent gain in first-half underlying profit to $82 million while holding its dividend unchanged and trimming capital spending in the face of weaker sales. Sales fell to $1.04 billion from $1.12 billion, and net income was $96 million compared with a loss of $116 million a year-earlier, which reflected impairments.
“They’re continuing up after yesterday’s result — I think that’s probably more a relief rally than anything, there was probably a bit of fear that result could disappoint, and it was pretty much in line with what people expected,” Price said.
was the worst performer on the index, dropping 2.6 per cent to $1.11. The stock market operator’s annual profit dropped 62 per cent to $9.2 million compared with last year’s result flattered by the gain on the sale of its Link Market Services division.
fell 1.7 per cent
Trade Me Group SkyCity Entertainment
to $5.11, dropped 1.5 per cent to $3.87,
Group
The
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
and declined 1.4 per cent to $8.97. Outside the benchmark index, was unchanged at 63 cents. Wellington-based company,
Oil & Gas NZ
which is on the prowl for new investment opportunities, has sold its 27.5 per cent stake in the Tui oil fields off the coast of Taranaki for US$750,000.