NZ market starts the week with no real direction
Church donations software company Pushpay fell a further 6% as the New Zealand sharemarket failed to take the bait from strong offshore leads in Australia and the United States.
Monday, March 6th 2023, 6:31PM
by BusinessDesk
The S&P/NZX 50 Index traded steadily on light volume and finished 43.68 points or 0.37% ahead at 11,912.48, after reaching an intraday high of 11,953.88.
There were 77 gainers and 53 decliners over the whole market that featured 22.8 million share transactions worth $83.82 million.
Pushpay Holdings was down 8c or 6.5% to $1.15 and has now fallen nearly 10.5% since the $1.54 billion takeover by investment firms Sixth Street and BGH Capital was rejected at a shareholders' meeting last Friday.
The stock was lightly traded on both sides of the Tasman, with 612,000 shares worth $695,950 changing hands in NZ, and Pushpay’s share price is back to the level prior to the takeover bid.
Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said the arbitrage (hedge) funds will be holding millions of Pushpay shares and they will be stuck in their position hoping a higher bid can be generated.
“Most of the funds would have bought in after the bid was announced and they now have a decision of whether to stay in. There are wide views on Pushpay’s fundamental fair value and the stock has traded between 90c and $1.45 over the past 12-18 months,” he said.
David McConnochie, investment adviser with Forsyth Barr, said the local market started the week with no real direction and didn’t take up leads from strong markets in Australia and the US.
“There was a lot of index re-weighting happening last week and the local market just had a quiet day,” he said.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 0.6% at 7327 points at 6pm NZ time.
Wall Street finished its week with two strong trading days. Over that time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 2.22% to 33,390.97 points; the S&P 500 was up 2.37% to 4045.64; and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.7% to 11,689.01.
Index changes
At home, trans-Tasman healthcare and animal care products distributor Ebos Group climbed $1.24 or 2.85% to $44.74m after announcing it will be added to the S&P/ASX 300 Index on March 20.
In the ASX All Ordinaries Index, Air NZ, Infratil, NZME, Synlait Milk, Smartpay Holdings and Tourism Holdings will be added and Eroad removed.
Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare added further support to the market, rising 44c to $26.49.
Chorus was up 7c to $8.13; Skellerup Holdings increased 6c to $5.14; Summerset Group added 11c to $9.12; Synlait Milk collected 5c to $3.26; Michael Hill gained 3c or 2.73% to $1.13; and Tower was up 1c to 62c.
Napier Port rebounded 9c or 3.32% to $2.80; South Port NZ climbed 15c or 1.94% to $7.90; and Port of Tauranga was down 6c to $6.20.
Leading banks ANZ increased 44c to $26.40 and Westpac gained 27c to $24.02 on the back of a strong day in Australia.
Transport technology firm Eroad was up 1c to 79c after telling the market it has reduced annual operating costs by $10m and will be announcing further cost-cutting initiatives, worth another $10m, at an investor day on March 21.
It was the day for green bonds. Meridian Energy, gaining 2c to $5.385, has launched a $150m five-and-a-half-year green bond, with the ability to accept up to $50m over-subscriptions.
Kiwi Property was down 0.005c to 91.5c after telling the market that its $3.2 billion mixed-use portfolio will be devalued 4.1% or $134.7m for the six months ended March.
Kiwi is maintaining 100% occupancy with second-half sales growth and rental uplift, and is next week launching a $100m six-and-a-half-year green bond.
Genesis Energy was down 4c to $2.855; Vector declined 5c to $3.94; Vista Group decreased 4c or 2.74% to $1.42; Rakon fell 5c or 5.21% to 91c; and Vulcan Steel had one of its biggest single-day falls, down 50c or 5.36% to $8.82.
Bremworth shed 3c or 6.98% to 40c; CDL Investments declined 3c or 3.95% to 73c; and Geneva Finance was down 2c or 4.55% to 42c.
Transport and logistics software firm Trade Window drifted a further 2.5c or 7.04% to 33c after earlier announcing it raised just $5.4m in a $20m share offer. Trade Window reached a high of $2.02 on March 18 last year and has fallen 88.5% in the past 12 months.
Global kiwifruit distributor and marketer Zespri, with a $4b business, has indicated it will list on the NZX later this year, with only growers owning shares. Zespri has forecast net profit for the year ending March in the range of $217m-$227m, significantly down on the previous year’s profit of $361.5m.
| « Investors switch focus from earnings to macro environment | Turners goes up a gear as NZ market remains flat » |
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