Index loses altitude after Air NZ defers raising

The New Zealand sharemarket faltered on the surprise move by Air New Zealand to delay its capital raising and the continued uncertainty over the activity of the offshore clean energy exchange traded funds.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 58.25 points or 0.46 per cent to 12,574.35, after reaching an intraday high of 12,686.33. There were 81 gainers and 62 decliners over the whole market on volume of 56.59 million share transactions worth $219.47.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager for Harbour Asset Management, said there was a lot of noise on the market.

“People were anticipating a capital raise by Air New Zealand in June and now it’s been pushed out to September. And the cleaning out of the exchange traded funds holdings in Contact and Meridian is taking longer than expected,” he said.

Air New Zealand’s share price gained 2c to $1.83. The stock has now doubled in 12 months, having been 90c on April 4 last year.

Contact and Meridian headed the trading by value, suggesting the iShares Global Clean Energy ETFs were still in selling mode. Contact finished at $7.05, up 1c, on trade worth $30.77m, and Meridian also gained 1c to $5.45, with $33.76m worth of its shares changing hands. Mercury Energy gained 3.5c to $6.525.

Cancer diagnostics company Pacific Edge surged 21c or 21.21per cent to $1.20 after announcing a new agreement in the United States. The company’s Cxbladder tests will be covered by United Healthcare, the largest healthcare group in the US, and including previous deals Pacific Edge now has access to more than 110 million Americans. Solly said Pacific Edge gained “a real ripper of a client in the US and it is now well on track to being profitable.”

Transport technology company Eroad rose 26c or 5.56 per cent to $4.94 after also signing up a large and meaningful Australian customer. Infrastructure services company Ventia is installing 4000 Eroad electronic distance recorders in its Australian and New Zealand fleets, and will be paying a monthly subscription for five years. Eroad’s share price has risen $1 in the past three weeks, after sitting at $3.94 on March 19.

Market leader Fisher & Paykel Healthcare had a late fall, losing 18c to $33.42 on trade worth $23.9m after reaching an intraday high of $34.14; and a2 Milk gave back its gain of the previous day, falling 29c or 3.26 per cent to $8.60.

Investore Property increased 5c or 2.42 per cent to $2.12 following a $57.5m property valuation gain for the six months ending March. Investore’s portfolio is expected to be worth $1.038 billion at March 31, with a loan to value ratio of 26.8 per cent.