NZ sharemarket takes a breather despite strong performance from Hallenstein Glasson

Hallenstein Glasson shone bright with a solid first-half performance but the New Zealand sharemarket took a breather after a strong rally this week.

Friday, March 31st 2023, 6:29PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index traded in a narrow range of 11,870.4 and 11,933.17 before closing at 11,884.5, down 48.66 points or 0.41%. The index finished the week with a gain of 2.6% and the first quarter was ahead by 3.7%.

Its Australian counterpart S&P/ASX 200 Index looks like finishing the quarter with a gain of 2.7%, after being up 0.79% to 7178.6 points at 5.45pm NZ time.

On the local market, there were 69 gainers and 61 decliners with 29.94 million shares worth $127.21m changing hands.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said “we lagged offshore markets today after having a strong run in the last few days".

“We’ve got more interesting macro-economic data coming out next week including the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy review. People are wondering whether central banks are getting closer to ending interest rate rises.

“Still, we have had some good money coming into the New Zealand market lately – and we are a good defensive place to be with our gentailers and other utility stocks."

Clothing retailer Hallenstein Glasson rose 16c or 2.84% to $5.80 after reporting a 74.8% rise in net profit to $20.82m on revenue of $223.29m, up 30.9%, for the six months ending Feb 1. It is paying an interim dividend of 24c a share on April 19.

Hallenstein said the first eight weeks of winter season trading have been challenging – and are expected to continue – with the cost of living and inflationary pressures impacting on consumers' discretionary spending.

Group sales were up 13.9% compared with the same period last year, and Australian trading is expected to remain stronger than NZ’s.

Companies that made strong gains the day before gave back some of their rises.

Fletcher Building was down 17c or 3.75% to $4.36; Meridian Energy declined 16c or 2.96% to $5.25; Freightways shed 15c to $9.45; Mainfreight shed 49c to $70.01; and Ryman Healthcare fell 20c or 3.67% to $5.25.

Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was up 45c to $26.65; Skellerup Holdings rebounded 13c or 2.55 to $5.23; Scales Corp gained 7c or 2.21% to $3.24; and Restaurant Brands rose 29c or 4.51 to $6.72.

Other gainers were NZME up 21c or 1.92% to $1.06; Move Logistics increasing 2c or 2.08% to 98c; Gentrack collecting 7c or 2.55% to $2.82; and Serko adding 9c or 3.91% to $2.39.

Manawa Energy was up 3c to $4.97 after indicating its full-year operating earnings (Ebitdaf) to the end of March is likely to be at the top end of the current guidance of $127.5m-$140m because of strong fourth-quarter trading. Capital expenditure is unchanged at $45m-$55m.

Manawa’s 2024 operating earnings guidance is $120m-$140m, with capital expenditure of $65m-$80m.

Spark, gaining 8c to $5.06, is next week beginning a share buy-back programme of up to $350m. Sky TV, down 4c to $2.52, is doing the same, buying back $15m worth of shares. Other decliners were Air NZ down 2c or 2.55% to 76.5c; Michael Hill decreasing 2c or 1.85% to $1.06; Steel & Tube shedding 3c or 2.73% to $1.07; and Tower giving up 2c or 3.15% to 61.5c.

SkyCity Entertainment shed 6c or 2.45% to $2.39; Green Cross Health was down 3c or 2.17% to $1.35; Rakon declined 4c or 4.4% to 87c; and Oceania Healthcare decreased 2c or 2.67% to 73c.

Arvida Group, down 1c to 93c, has increased its debt facility by $100m (for three and a half years) to $675m with ASB joining its banking syndicate alongside ANZ and BNZ.

Cancer diagnostics company Pacific Edge was unchanged at 43c after telling the market it has completed the software development to integrate Cxbladder in Kaiser Permanente’s electronic medical records. Kaiser is the largest integrated healthcare provider in the United States, serving 12.6 million members.

Booster Innovation, unchanged at $1.468, has reduced the value of its fund by 2.9% or $436,000 following a review of each of its 30 investments. The net asset value of the fund is $1.406 per unit.

TradeWindow, up 1c to 33.5c, told the market that global blockchain company nChain is making an $11.1m investment and becoming a 19.99% shareholder. The investment includes $2.4m cash, software engineering resources worth $3.9m, and licensed technology to the value of $4.8m.

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