Profit-takers keep local shares in red
Stride Property and Warehouse among the poor performers while Xero and Chorus make gains Kiwi sitting tight
New Zealand shares dropped, led by Stride Property and Warehouse Group, while Xero and Chorus rose. The S&P/NZX50 Index fell 45.79 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 7131.3. Within the index, 30 stocks declined, 11 rose and nine were unchanged. Turnover was $120 million.
“We’re getting some negative leads from offshore, there’s some profit taking going on as people look to lock in some gains,” said Grant Davies, investment advisor at Hamilton Hindin Greene.
New Zealand Refining,
which gave up rights to a 6 cent dividend, was the worst performer, down 4.6 per cent to $2.51. fell 2.9 per cent to $1.67 and
dropped 2.9 per cent to
Television
$3.69.
Stride Property Sky Network Warehouse Group
fell 2.5 per cent to $2.39. Last Thursday, the retailer reported a 76 per cent drop in firsthalf profit after it took an impairment charge against its financial services unit, recognised restructuring costs and earned less from its Red Shed department stores.
“Only a few days ago it reported and it wasn’t flash — a downgrade in full-year earnings which is slowly flowing through to the share price,” Davies said. “It will also go exdividend at the end of the month so it’s going to be a rough month.”
was the best performer, up 1.8 per cent to $19.32. gained 1 per cent to $4.10 and
rose 0.9 per cent to
Xero International
$5.60.
Vector Banking Chorus Vista Group
was unchanged at $3.22. It has expanded out its suite of energy services with the acquisition of E-Co Products Group, better known as home ventilation firm HRV, and solar power firm PowerSmart, both for undisclosed sums.
ANZ Banking Group
dipped 0.2 per cent to $34.65 and
fell 1.2 per cent to $37.69. The two banks have entered into enforceable undertakings to change their practices after the Australian regulator found inappropriate con-
Westpac
duct in their wholesale foreign exchange businesses, following peers National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank. Outside the benchmark index, dropped 2.2 per cent to $1.34. ASX-listed insurer Suncorp Group raised the stakes in its takeover tilt
Tower
for the NZX-listed general insurer, paying an ever larger premium to build its stake to 19.99 per cent. The Australian parent of local insurers Vero Insurance and Asteron Life paid $1.40 a share for 11.3 million shares from Australian fund manager Perpetual yesterday, more than the $1.30 put forward to Tower in an indicative offer, and what it had previously paid to build a 13.3 per cent stake.
“We saw the share price shoot up [on Tuesday], some in the market have taken that to mean they’re prepared to pay up to $1.40 for the whole company,” Davies said.
“Their current offer stands at $1.30 for the full company, so some people are happy to take that risk off the table — take the proverbial bird in the hand and move on. There’s no guarantee that $1.30 offer will proceed as they’ve got to get approval from the Commerce Commission and the OIO, especially given Suncorp has a powerful position in the New Zealand insurance market already.” The New Zealand dollar kept to a tight range as markets await a series of events, in particular the results of the Federal Reserve’s meeting due early today (NZT). The kiwi traded at US69.31c yesterday afternoon versus US69.20c late on Tuesday. “The New Zealand dollar is chopping around a little bit but markets in general are waiting for the next 24 hours. We have plenty on the horizon,” said ANZ senior economist Philip Borkin. The NZ dollar traded at €65.29c from
64.96c late on Tuesday. It was at A91.56c from A91.54c and 57.02p from 56.72p.