Shares slip on quiet day’s trading
Sky TV and Mercury lead NZ index down ahead of a busy reporting period this week
New Zealand shares fell in quiet trading yesterday ahead of a busy mid-week reporting period, led lower by Sky Network Television and Mercury, while Synlait Milk and a2 Milk rose.
The S&P/NZX50 Index declined 10.06 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 8115.25. Within the index, 22 stocks rose, 20 fell and eight were unchanged. Turnover was $67 million.
“We’re under-performing a little, it’s a reasonably subdued performance to start the week which is probably not surprising as there’s an avalanche of results coming in the rest of the week,” said Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners.
“I suspect it’s a bit of wait-and-see approach from investors, there will be no shortage of news flow later in the week.”
Sky TV led the index lower, down 2.5 per cent to $2.73, with Mercury falling 2 per cent to $3.265.
Freightways fell 1.2 per cent to $7.44. It reported a gain in first-half revenue although profit fell 8 per cent to $31.4m. NZX dipped 0.9 per cent to $1.10. It boosted annual profit 62 per cent, cutting costs by trimming down its agri publishing unit and refocusing on its core markets business.
Synlait Milk was the best performer, up 5.2 per cent to $7.05.
Lister said he would expect the stock to have gained slightly as it often follows a2 Milk up, but yesterday’s gain was large.
A2 itself rose 0.4 per cent to $9.28, and hit a record $9.44 during the session. “After the stunning year last year, it’s up another 16 per cent this year — it has gone on to even higher highs,” Lister said.
Outside the benchmark index, Evolve Education fell 19 per cent to 61c after the early childhood education group gave its second full-year profit warning. — BusinessDesk