Market commentary

WELLINGTON: Pacific Edge shares sank by almost 50% on the possibility its cancer tests will no longer be covered by a major US health insurance company after the cancer diagnostic company’s trading halt was lifted as the market opened yesterday.

But Pacific Edge’s bad news was not enough to drag the market down, thanks to infrastructure group Infratil lifting the main index higher on the news of its $US300 million ($NZ476 million) deal with a German insurer.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 33.2 points to 11,525.87. Turnover was $89.6 million.

Pacific Edge told the NZX yesterday morning its cancer tests could be dropped by a major US health insurance company that is considering a new way to choose which tests are covered.

Shares in the company almost halved when the trading halt was lifted at market open, falling 48% to just 40 cents — their lowest price since 2020.

Craigs Investment Partners investment adviser Peter McIntyre said it would be a ‘‘major blow’’ for the firm if that avenue of US revenue was lost.

Pacific Edge’s shares made up a scrap of lost ground by the end of the day but were still down 37.8% to 48.5 cents.

It was Infratil’s Longroad Energy investment announcement that helped haul the market higher after the infrastructure group told the NZX it had agreed to sell a 12% stake to German insurer Munich Re for $US300 million.

Infratil’s shares were up 6.7% to $8.94 by the end of the day.

Plexure Group shares also rose, 77.6% to 32.5 cents on the fiveyear contract renewal to its biggest customer, McDonald’s.

Chief executive Dan Houden said he was excited about the continued partnership with the fastfood chain and was looking forward to working towards their mutual goal of delivering ‘‘excellent experiences’’ for McDonald’s customers.

Fletcher Building was down 1.9% to $5.06 and land development company CDL Investments was down 3.5% to 84 cents.

Statistics NZ’s new building consent data yesterday said that the year to June’s 50,736 residential consents were slightly less than the previous month of the year to May with 51,015 consents — but still marked the fourth consecutive month where the annual number of new homes consented had surpassed 50,000.

‘‘Home consents have remained near historically high levels, with a decrease in standalone houses being largely offset by high levels of consenting activity for multiunit homes,’’ construction and property statistics manager Michael Heslop said.

The number of standalone houses consented in June fell 5.5%, following a 1.6% drop in May.

Agedcare provider Ryman Healthcare was up 0.8% to $9.35 and Third Age Health Services was down 12.2% to $1.94. —