Market gains as earnings season kicks off
New Zealand shares rose as Contact Energy’s first-half earnings delivered a betterthan-expected dividend. Restaurant Brands New Zealand led the market higher.
The S&P/NZX50 index gained 33.39 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 9210. Within the index, 28 stocks rose, 13 fell and nine were unchanged. Turnover was $92.3 million, with just four companies trading on volumes of more than a million shares.
Contact rose 1.6 per cent to a fouryear high of $6.32 after reporting a 28 per cent gain in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, and changes in financial instruments as its generation arm benefited from higher wholesale electricity prices.
The board also declared an interim dividend of 16 cents per share, higher than the 15 cents payment predicted by Forsyth Barr analyst Andrew Harvey-Green, and changed the policy to paying 100 per cent of operating cash flow.
“We’re kicking off earnings season on a positive note,” said Grant Davies, an investment adviser at Hamilton Hindin Greene. “It’s was a pretty solid result and then the cherry on top is the good bump in the dividend.”
Genesis Energy rose 1.1 per cent to $2.69 on a bigger-than-average volume of 551,000, Kiwi Property
Group increased 1.1 per cent to $1.45 with 1.4 million shares changing hands. Goodman Property Trust
gained 0.9 per cent at $1.62 on a volume of 238,000, about half its 90-day average.
Trustpower increased 0.2 per cent to $6.30 on light volume, after warning it may have to write down the value of its generation assets after revising its future electricity price expectations. Controlling shareholder Infratil rose 1 per cent to $3.95 with 932,000 shares traded.
Spark New Zealand was the most traded stock on a volume of 2.7 million. It fell 0.6 per cent to $4.025.
A2 Milk rose 2.4 per cent to $13.40 on a volume of 1.2 million, while Vital Healthcare Property Trust increased 0.2 per cent to $2.095 on a volume of 1.1 million, almost five times its 90-day average.
Restaurant Brands led the market higher, up 2.8 per cent at $8.84 on very light volume.
Briscoe Group rose 2.8 per cent to $3.33 after reporting a 5.8 per cent increase in fourth-quarter sales, and flagging yet another record profit. Rival Warehouse Group fell 0.5 per cent to $2.06.
Ryman Healthcare was the worst performer on the benchmark index, down 2.9 per cent at $10.70. Tourism Holdings was down 1.9 per cent at $4.60.