Market commentary

AUCKLAND: Ebos Group, a2 Milk, Synlait and Pacific Edge were the centre of attention with transformative developments, while the New Zealand sharemarket made a recovery after a noon slump. When the stocks produced good and bad news, much of it surprising, the S&P/NZX 50 Index was down as much as half a percent, but it closed at 11,864.12 down, declining 16.77 points or 0.14%. There were 87 gainers and 48 decliners over the whole market on volumes of 37.21 million share transactions worth $203.03 million, with Ebos and a2 Milk soaking up much of the trading. The biggest shock came when Ebos, the seventhlargest local stock on capitalisation and Australasia’s leading health products distributor, told the market it will lose the contract to supply the Chemist Warehouse from the end of June next year. The contract is worth $1.9 billion in annual revenue. Ebos led the market down, plunging $4.08 or 9.84% to $37.38 on trade worth $45.92 million. Ebos lost out on the contract to smaller rival Sigma Healthcare, which will supply pharmaceuticals and consumer goods to Chemist Warehouse for five years. Synlait received the longawaited news that China’s State Administration for Market Regulation has approved the reregistration of a2 Milk’s China label infant milk formula through to September 2027. Synlait surged 27c, or 16.88%, to $1.87 and a2 Milk rose 30c, or 5.23%, to $6.04, with 2.57 million shares worth $15.77 million changing hands. Pacific Edge went into a trading halt, probably until today, to consider the surprising development that it will not receive Medicare funding for its Cxbladder tests in the United States. Cxbladder accounts for about 60% of Pacific Edge’s revenue and it last traded at 49.5c, having fallen from a high of $1.56 at the end of September 2021. On a busy day for corporate news, there were other big price movements. Tourism Holdings was down 25c, or 6.79%, to $3.45. Eroad climbed 8c, or 10.81%, to 82c; Serko increased 19c, or 6.21%, to $3.25; Fletcher Building was up 20c, or 4.04%, to $5.15; and Sanford added 16c, or 3.9%, to $4.26. Freightways decreased 15c to $8.85; Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was also down 15c to $23.81; Auckland International Airport declined 7c to $8.72; Arvida Group shed 3c, or 2.46%, to $1.19; Seeka fell 10c, or 3.57%, to $2.70; and TradeWindow was down 2c, or 5.41%, to 35c. In the property sector, Goodman Trust increased 5c, or 2.34%, to $2.19; Vital Healthcare Trust was up 4.5c, or 1.97%, to $2.33; Asset Plus gained 1.5c, or 6%, to 26.5c; and Stride declined 3c, or 2.24%, to $1.31. Mainfreight collected $2.50, or 3.7%, to $70.05; Summerset Group increased 20c, or 2.22%, to $9.19; Green Cross Health improved 4c, or 2.86%, to $1.44; Third Age Health Services was up 2.6c, or 1.76%, to $1.50; and Vista Group added 4c, or 2.9%, to $1.42. Turners Automotive increased 8c, or 2.22%, to $3.68; Vulcan Steel was up 23c, or 2.77%, to $8.53; South Port NZ added 22c, or 2.91%, to $7.70; and NZ King Salmon Investments rebounded 1.9c, or 9.69%, to 21.5c. Mercury, up 7c to $6.72, has launched a $100 million fiveyear green bond, with the ability to accept a further $50 million in oversubscriptions. Fellow energy companies Meridian was down 3.5c to $5.54, and Contact gained 6c to $8.01. Cannasouth declined 1.5c, or 5.45%, to 26c after telling the market it had exported its first shipment of dried cannabisflower to Australia. —