Synlait success has stock at record high

Air New Zealand's price slid 0.5 per cent to $3.20 as the fuel crisis impacted. Photo / Mark Mitchell

New Zealand shares inched up, with Synlait Milk touching records, A2 Milk gaining after Synlait's positive earnings and New Zealand Refining recovering.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 5.82 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 7,764.53. Within the index, 19 stocks rose, 19 fell and 12 were unchanged. Turnover was $157.6 million.

Synlait Milk led the index, up 5.5 per cent to $5.54. The shares rose to a record high on intraday trading after the company posted an 11 per cent gain in full-year profit to $38m and flagged further growth this year while signalling a move into branded consumer goods.

"It certainly beat our expectations and I think it beat other analyst expectations as well," said Peter McIntyre, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners. "It had a strong finish to the year and the growth outlook is positive, it was enough to really please investors. The share price has gone ballistic over the last week - it's up over 12.5 per cent the week rolling, there has been a really strong price appreciation."

A2 Milk Co also gained, up 0.9 per cent to $5.89. The stock has gained 174 per cent this year, making it the best performer on the index.

New Zealand Refining bounced after Monday's selling, up 2.1 per cent to $2.44. On Monday it announced a pipeline leak had disrupted jet fuel supplies at Auckland International Airport.

"It has bounced back, the impact is going to be around $10 to $15 million on revenue," McIntyre said. "The news is out there now, there are still a few complaining they should have had an announcement on Friday but there are maybe some investors taking an advantage of that pullback in price, noting there's nothing materially wrong with the company and it's just an unfortunate accident."

Air New Zealand dipped 0.5 per cent to $3.20. Its domestic and international flights have been disrupted, as the shutdown is limiting available jet fuel to about 30 per cent of normal usage.

Late today afternoon, the carrier announced it had cancelled further international flights due to leave today, and expected further cancellations. The airline has also stopped all ticket sales on some international services.

Spark rose 0.3 per cent to $3.82 while Contact fell 0.9 per cent to $5.42, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare dropped 1.1 per cent to $12.15 and Vector declined 1.8 per cent to $3.24.

Metro Performance Glass was the worst performer, down 2.9 per cent to $1.02, while CBL Corp fell 1.4 per cent to $2.86. Outside the benchmark index, New Zealand Oil & Gas dropped 1.3 per cent to 74c.

OG Oil & Gas, the oil and gas division of Ofer Global Group, is pursuing a partial takeover of NZOG to keep the local energy explorer's NZX listing and the access to future capital it provides.

The Ofer unit has offered 77c per share for a maximum of 70 per cent of NZOG to trump a rival bid by Zeta Resources.