Market commentary

WELLINGTON: The New Zealand sharemarket, on Budget Day, proved resilient to the gyrations on Wall Street, which had its biggest singleday slide in nearly two years.

While leading United States indices tumbled more than 4% the S&P/NZX 50 Index finished down 51.34 points or 0.46% to 11,206.93 after making a strong recovery during the afternoon as the Budget details unfolded. The index reached an intraday low of 11,070.38 points.

There were 100 decliners and 38 gainers across the main board on light trading of 44.59 million shares worth $112.87 million.

Utilities investor Infratil provided a bright light. It increased 20c to $8.10 after reporting a big increase in net profit to $1.23 billion on revenue of $1.88 billion, up 36.9%, for the year ending March.

It was Infratil’s biggest result since it started in 1994 and reflected the $1 billion profit from the sale of its stake in Tilt Renewables. Operating earnings (ebitdaf) were $513.9 million. It is paying a final dividend of 12c a share on June 15.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down 46c to $20.59; Fletcher Building declined 11c to $5.80;

Freightways shed 20c to $10.80; Restaurant Brands fell 40c to $11.50; and The Warehouse Group was down 19c to $3.26.

Serko fell 35c to $4.15, having reached a high of $8.32 in early September last year.

Vista Group was down 5c to $1.60; Sky Network Television shed 12c to $2.38; Steel & Tube declined 6c to $1.40; Turners Automotive decreased 9c to $3.76; and Eroad fell a further 8c to $2.49, after starting the year at $5.

Among the few gainers, Ampol was up $1.22 to $38.45; Scales Corporation collected 16c to $4.79; Bremworth rose 4c to 54c; and Tourism Holdings increased 12c to $2.79.

Goodman Property Trust was up 5c to $2.13 after reporting record annual net profit of $763.8 million, up 17.7%. Net tangible assets value increased 22.6% to $2.606 a share.

Heartland Group Holdings, down 4c to $2.20, announced the appointment of Chris Flood as deputy group chief executive, and Leanne Lazarus will be moving from Westpac Life to become the Heartland Bank chief executive from August 1.

Seeka fell 22c to $4.86 after telling the market its SunGold kiwifruit crop was lower than expected. Seeka has packed 26 million trays, 8.2% below its estimate. Sanford gained 1c to $4.35 after reporting a 55.5% fall in net profit to $6.12 million on revenue of $270.92 million, up 16% for six months ending March.

Operating earnings (ebit) improved 79.4% to $19.2 million and profit from the wildcatch division was up 108.4% because of strong global demand for white fish. —