Sky and Westpac lead market higher
Analyst says the jury will be out on Tegel, which is suffering from a glut of chicken
New Zealand shares rose, led by Sky Network Television and Westpac Banking Corp, while Tegel Group Holdings and A2 Milk Co dropped. The S&P/NZX 50 Index gained 29.12 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 7180.02. Within the index, 30 stocks rose, 10 fell and 10 were unchanged. Turnover was $164.3 million.
Sky Network Television
led the index, up 3.4 per cent to $4.59, recovering some of its losses from earlier this week when it shed dividend rights. rose 2.5 per cent to $35.70 and
gained 2.5 per cent to $3.71 ahead of an earnings announcement today.
Westpac Banking Corp Spark New Zealand A2 Milk Co
dipped 0.4 per cent to $2.56, though it traded higher for most of the day. The milk marketer more than tripled its first-half profit to $39.4m as demand for its A2 Platinum infant formula surged in its key Australian, New Zealand and Chinese markets. The company expects to adopt a dividend policy after its 2017 full-year results.
“It was a pretty decent result, the first-half numbers were better than people were expecting and trading through January looks to have gone pretty well,” said Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners. “I think you’ll see most of the analysts pushing their numbers up a little bit.
“It had a very strong run into the result and it’s been the top performer in the NZX 50 this year, so expectations were pretty high anyway. The market was quietly expecting a better result than most analysts had been picking.”
was the worst performer, down 2.3 per cent at $1.30. Australian rival Ingham’s Group expects New Zealand’s oversupply of chicken to continue this
Tegel Group Holdings
year, keeping prices cheap and crimping earnings. Both companies have had to contend with low domestic prices with supply outstripping demand in the past six months.
“They’ve been a pretty mixed performer, they haven’t been able to deliver as strongly as investors would’ve liked,” Lister said. “They’ve disappointed the market a couple of times since listing and investors will want to see evidence of them improving . . . They’re not reporting this season, I think the jury will be out over the short term until investors see results.”
Restaurant Brands Trustpower Auckland International Airport Edge Pushpay Holdings
fell 1.8 per dropped cent to $5.36, 1.1 per cent to $4.54 and
declined 1.1 per cent to $6.875.
Outside the benchmark index, cancer diagnostics company
gained 6 per cent to 53c after undertaking an $8m share placement to institutional and other select investors in New Zealand to shore up its balance sheet.
Trilogy International Pacific
rose 3.1 per cent to $2.01. The mobile app developer has made a funding agreement for a research and development grant from Callaghan Innovation.
declined 2.7 per cent to $2.53.
“They [had a] pretty weak day and they’ve been the market darling over the years, it’s almost down 50 per cent from lofty levels last year,” Lister said. “It looks like there’s been some selling from one institutional shareholder that’s driven this latest weakness. I think a few people are reconsidering the growth story they’ve got ahead of them.”