Index edges down on mixed day
Cautious investors await earnings season but cinema software firm Vista makes successful debut on NZX
Trading in New Zealand shares was mixed yesterday as investors waited on earnings season to justify the relatively high valuation of companies. NZX rose after reporting firsthalf earnings, while SkyCity Entertainment Group fell ahead of reporting tomorrow. Vista International Group rose on its NZX debut.
The NZX 50 Index fell 5.57 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 5049.63. Within the index, 15 stocks fell, 25 rose and 10 were unchanged.
NZX rose 0.8 per cent to $1.28 and has gained 2.4 per cent this year. The stock market operator is the first benchmark index constituent to kick off earnings season, reporting firsthalf profit up 8.6 per cent at $6.97 million from the same period a year earlier. Sales rose to $31.2 million from $30 million.
SkyCity Entertainment Group fell 1.1 per cent to $3.60. Forsyth Barr forecasts its annual earnings will fall 12 per cent to $124.1 million in the year ended June 31.
Summerset Group Holdings rose 1 per cent to $2.98. The retirement village operator is expected to report a 4 per cent increase in first-half earnings today, according to Forsyth Barr.
Vista rose 8.5 per cent to $2.55 from its offer price of $2.35 in its first day of trading on the NZX. The cinema software and data analytics firm raised $92 million in its float, which was three times oversubscribed at its institutional bookbuild.
Unlike some other high-tech companies that are forecasting losses in a push for global growth, Vista expects to be profitable, though it has suspended its dividend plan for at least the next two years.
Vital Healthcare Property Trust rose 1.5 per cent to $1.37, after New Zealand’s largest listed medical and healthcare property investor said it had bought a 31-bed psychiatric hospital in Perth, Western Australia, for A$13.5 million, as it looks to beef up its exposure to the resources-driven state economy.
A2 Milk was the day’s best performer on the benchmark index, up 3.1 per cent to 66c. The milk marketer, which is facing copycat health claims about the A2 beta-casein protein variant in its largest market of Australia, released a study suggesting the protein does not provoke digestive dis- comfort the way the more common A1 variant does.
Xero, the cloud-based accounting software firm, led the benchmark index lower, falling 3.8 per cent to a nine-month low of $22.71.
Spark New Zealand, the rebranded Telecom Corp, fell 0.4 per cent to $2.81. Fletcher Building, New Zealand’s largest listed company, rose 0.6 per cent to $8.81.
Off the bourse, shareholders in Renaissance Corp have backed a resolution to wind up the retailer and education group, and have appointed a liquidator to the company. The company lost its monopoly on Apple products sold in New Zealand and has been selling businesses for the past two years.
Trading in the shares was suspended on August 5, and they last traded at 14.6c, valuing Renaissance at $6.37 million.