Cooling power companies drag index lower
Contact and Meridian Energy finished their golden run- up to being revalued on a global index, dragging the New Zealand sharemarket down on heavy trading yesterday.
The S& P/ NZX 50 Index lost 53.57 points or 0.43 per cent to 12,433.16 after falling 0.45 per cent the day before. But the index was up 1.24 per cent for the week. There were 74 gainers and 64 decliners over the whole market, with 90.6 million shares worth $ 384.11m changing hands.
Contact fell 36c or 4.44 per cent to $ 7.74 on trading of 14.5m shares worth $ 112.5m, and Meridian declined 25c or 4.24 per cent to $ 5.65 on 23m shares worth $ 130m. Mercury was also down 10c to $ 5.40.
Shane Solly, Harbour Asset Management portfolio manager, said Meridian and Contact will overnight have “a weighting uplift” on the iShares Global Clean Energy
Exchange Traded Fund. “This increases their liquidity and investors have been purchasing in advance of the index change.”
Mainfreight, bubbling with increased business activity, continued its glorious run, climbing $ 1.85 or 3.55 per cent to another new peak of $ 53.90. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 34c to $ 35.20 but a2 Milk slipped 9c to $ 15.66.
Retirement village operator Oceania Healthcare gained another 3c or 2.16 per cent to $ 1.42, having increased a third in price over the past three weeks.
Among its competitors, Summerset Group Holdings was up 2c to $ 10.32 and Arvida gained 3c to $ 1.82. Ebos Group was down 7c to $ 26.80, Auckland International Airport fell 24.5c or 3.29 per cent to $ 7.20, and Hallenstein Glasson decreased 18c or 2.94 per cent to $ 5.94.
Scott Technology rose 5c or 2.66 per cent to $ 1.93, Serko was up 16c or 3.17 per cent to $ 5.20, and The Warehouse climbed 15c or 6.91 per cent to $ 2.32, with three brokers putting out positive research notes.
SkyCity Entertainment sent out mixed signals at its annual meeting and its share price fell 5c to $ 3.11. SkyCity told its shareholders that the Hamilton, Queenstown and Adelaide casinos were trading ahead of expectations.
Online casino trading was positive but the outlook remains unpredictable for the 2021 financial year as “we adjust to new social and economic settings.”
SkyCity is providing a trading update in mid- November.
Meanwhile, Allied Farmers rose by 7c or 11.29 per cent to 69c after the rural services group announced that it was supporting a new listing, New Zealand Rural Land Company ( NZRLC), which will be making an initial public offering of up to $ 150m next month.