A2 Milk leads as NZ shares edge higher

Retirement village stocks look strong too but Sky falls

[A2] has been under some selling pressure so there is some bargaining hunting.

Grant Williamson, investment adviser

New Zealand shares edged higher yesterday led by A2 Milk, while retirement village stocks were also among the day’s gainers.

The S&P/NZX50 Index rose 89.12 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 10925.62. Within the index, 41 stocks rose, eight fell, and one was unchanged. Turnover was $153.8 million, with just 12 stocks trading on volumes of more than a million shares.

“There’s been a reasonable start to the week, and a lot of that improvement relates to upside in A2 Milk,” said Grant Williamson, an investment adviser at Hamilton Hindin Greene.

Shares in the milk marketing company were up by 1.4 per cent to $13.26 on a volume of 1.1 million shares.

“It has been under some selling pressure so there is some bargaining hunting,” Williamson added.

Shares in Spark were up by 2 cents or 0.5 per cent to $4.41 off a volume of 2.8 million, as investors liked the yield of the telco, he said.

Shares in Sky Network Television fell as it indicated it would need shareholders to approve a plan to extend its Sanzaar rugby rights. Its share price fell by 0.9 per cent to $1.12 on a volume of 1.3 million.

The company is willing to bid $235m to get the broadcasting rights, but needs shareholder approval because its market value is not more than double the value of the deal.

Its market cap was sitting at $463.9m yesterday and deals worth more than half a company’s value must go a vote. “Sky TV is hovering near its recent low and it’s been sitting at that for some time now, really it’s in the doldrums,” Williamson said.

There was reasonable strength in retirement village stocks yesterday, with both Ryman Healthcare and Summerset Group rising, by 1.8 per cent to $13.24 and by 2.8 per cent to $6.62 respectively.

Shares in Arvida Group are also up, by 2.1 per cent to $1.48 off volumes of 570,000, while Oceania Healthcare fell by almost 1 per cent to $1.02.

Retailer The Warehouse Group rose by 2.0 per cent to $2.50 off light volumes, following last week’s announcement that it will pay its biggest dividend in five years and its turnaround plan is starting to pay off.

Gentrack’s share price fell by 8.9 per cent to $5.24, with just over 200,000 shares changing hands.

The utility software downgraded its expected operating earnings yet again, to between $25m and $26m.

It was only late July when it last downgraded earnings forecasts.

Investors will now look ahead to global manufacturing data including the United States ISM index today.

“There’s a been a positive start to the week, international economic data could be interesting with the trade war and so the market will pay close attention to what will happen,” Williamson concluded, noting that yesterday worries on the international scene had made little local impact.