Port of Tauranga result stands out in flat day

The New Zealand sharemarket continued to lack real direction and closed the week flat as it waited for the latest economic messages and any moves from the meeting of the world’s central bankers at Jackson Hole in the US.

With the reporting season coming to an end, however, the country’s leading port at Tauranga produced a strong performance.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index eased in the afternoon, closing down 18.84 points or 0.16 per cent to 11,608.29 after reaching an intraday high of 11,683.32.

The index is up nearly 1.3 per cent this month but has fallen almost 11 per cent so far this year.

There were 77 gainers and 63 decliners on the main board, with trading volume reaching 110.72 million transactions worth $360.88m, boosted by the sale of 48.12m Smartshares S&P/NZX 50 exchange-traded fund units for $117.81m.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said there was a bit of nervousness around what happens with the central banks’ discussions.

“Once we get the communications out of the meeting things will be clearer. Inflation is still very high and I don’t see the central banks cutting interest rates any time soon.” US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell was making a keynote speech overnight.

Solly said there had been a blizzard of company reporting locally and it will take a day or two longer for people to digest the financial results. But there have been more upgrades than downgrades.

Port of Tauranga rose 15c or 2.22 per cent to $6.90 after overcoming chain supply disruption with a solid annual result, recording an 8.7 per cent increase in net profit to $111.31m on revenue of $375.28m, up 10.1 per cent. Fellow port operator Marsden Maritime Holdings increased 10c or 1.85 per cent to $5.50 after reporting an 8.08 per cent fall in net profit to $13.1m on revenue of $17.15m, up 2.4 per cent for the year ending June. Marsden is paying a final dividend 10c a share on September 30.

Auckland International Airport was up 16.5c or 2.2 per cent to $7.68 on trade worth $18.8m; Contact Energy increased

11c to $7.88; and a2 Milk, which is reporting its much-anticipated result on Monday, improved 5c to $5.47.

PGG Wrightson gained 11c or 2.5 per cent to $4.51, and NZME was up 4c or 3.25 per cent to $1.27.

Hallenstein Glasson slipped 22c or 3.84 per cent to $5.51 after telling the market its net profit for the year ending August 1 will fall by nearly 27 per cent to $23.9m-$24.9m and its group sales were $351.21m, an increase of 0.1 per cent.