Sky Television drop leads shares down
Slide at start of pre-reporting lull bucks trend abroad
New Zealand shares fell from Friday’s record high, led by Sky Network Television and Tourism Holdings, while Pushpay Holdings gained. The S&P/NZX 50 Index dropped 22.39 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 9061.65. Within the index, 24 stocks fell, 17 rose and nine were unchanged. Turnover was $96.2 million.
Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners, said the move was in contrast to other markets, with strong leads from the United States and Europe on Friday and Asian markets generally trading higher yesterday afternoon.
“Our market has been a little stronger than most in recent times, so it’s unsurprising we’ve bucked the trend and are giving a little back today,” he said. “With school holidays there are a few participants who aren’t around, and we’re also in the traditional pre-reporting-season lull.”
Sky TV was the worst performer, down 5.1 per cent to $2.62, while
Tourism Holdings dropped 2.5 per cent to $6.51 and Synlait Milk fell 1.8 per cent to $11.39.
Gentrack Group slipped 1.4 per cent to $6.90 after coming out of a trading halt. It has raised about $52.4m in a discounted stock offer to institutional investors as part of a twostage share sale aimed at raising funds to repay debt used for a recent flurry of acquisitions.
That bookbuild, of 3.4 million entitlements, achieved a clearing price of $6.69 a share, a premium of 50c over the offer price of $6.19, and a discount of 19c a share to the theoretical ex-rights price of $6.88.
“It’s probably a better price than some might have thought, it’s a pretty solid price — it’s almost exactly where it was before they announced a rights issue,” Lister said. “That’s another good news story on the local market, again in the tech space and doing most of its business offshore.
“Exporters really have been going pretty well lately . . . with the kiwi falling against just about everyone.”
Pushpay Holdings was the best performer, up 1.7 per cent to $4.30. Last month, the company completed a $100m bookbuild to let executive director Eliot Crowther exit the firm he co-founded, selling 24.8 million shares at $4.04 apiece. Chorus rose 1.7 per cent to $4.32,
Air New Zealand gained 1.3 per cent
to $3.205, and New Zealand Refining Co was up 1.2 per cent to $2.52. Outside the benchmark index, TIL Logistics Group dropped 2.9 per cent to $1.65.