Market up as Gentrack hits a record
Shares gain with A2 Milk and Spark performing well
New Zealand shares gained, with Gentrack Group hitting a record and electricity companies Mercury New Zealand and Contact Energy gaining.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 58.27 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 8,494.24. Within the index, 27 stocks rose, 13 fell and 10 were unchanged. Turnover was $146.6 million.
A2 Milk led the index higher, up 3.5 per cent to $12.54, with Spark New Zealand rising 2.3 per cent to $3.53 and Kathmandu Holdings up 1.9 per cent to $2.66.
Gentrack rose 2.9 per cent to $7.40, its eighth day of gains in a row.
“They’re just kicking goals, they’ve put on the best part of $1 in just over a week and no-one’s wanting to sell it. They’re executing on their strategy and everyone wants a piece of it,” said Greg Easton, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners. “It’s a quality stock that has been left behind and is presenting some relative value compared to the broader market.”
Mercury New Zealand rose 1.4 per cent to $3.23. The electricity gen- erator and retailer will spend as much as $50m buying back some of its shares, enabling it to return capital to shareholders and rebalance its capi- tal structure Other gentailers also improved, with Contact Energy up 0.9 per cent to $5.48 and Genesis Energy rising 0.9 per cent to $2.30. Meridian Energy was unchanged at $2.975.
Fletcher Building rose 0.7 per cent to $6.24. The company completed the institutional component of its $750m capital raise earlier this month, generating gross proceeds of $515m, and the retail component of Fletcher’s capital raise opened on April 23 and closes on May 11. The dual-listed Australian-owned banks were mixed amidst news of increased scrutiny by local regulators, with Westpac Banking Corp up 0.6 per cent to $31.20 and ANZ Banking Group down 0.2 per cent to $29.30.
Heartland Bank was the worst performer, down 1.1 per cent to $1.78, while Precinct Properties New Zealand fell 0.8 per cent to $1.265 and Ryman Healthcare dropped 0.8 per cent to $10.42. — BusinessDesk