Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon sold 103,697 shares in the carrier. Photo / File
Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon, who was recently appointed to head up a Government business advisory group, has taken advantage of the confidence in Air New Zealand shares to cash in.
A notice to the exchange this week revealed Luxon had sold 103,697 shares in the airline netting $330,793.
While the statement appeared to show Luxon sold the shares during a closed period of trading for management, an Air New Zealand spokeswoman said this was not the case.
"Air New Zealand is not currently in a closed period — that ceased at the close of trade on 24 August, the day after we announced our FY18 results.
"No material information currently exists that would prevent trading outside of any closed period therefore Restricted Persons (which includes executives) are free to trade in Air New Zealand securities."
Luxon retains 3,793,269 shares.
Post-split highs from telecommunications retailer Spark and network provider Chorus this week show the stocks are gaining in favour with investors.
Chorus broke from Telecom and listed as a separate entity in November 2011 and listed at $3.30.
But it fell to a low of $1.32 by December 2013. On Wednesday it closed on $5.
Roy Davidson, an analyst with Craigs Investment Partners, said Chorus had been on fire of late. "People are becoming more comfortable with its story."
Chorus has faced an uncertain regulatory environment for years and has been spending up large on building New Zealand's fibre network.
But Davidson said it been bolstered by an Australian fund manager called L1 Capital which had taken a 10 per cent stake in Chorus and had been promoting Chorus through a recent roadshow for one of its funds.
Spark, formerly known as Telecom, also hit its highest share price since May 2005 this week at $4.08.
Davidson said Spark had seen a re-bound after trading at around $3.20-$3.40 earlier this year after the Reserve Bank indicated interest rates would stay lower for longer.
That has boosted infrastructure and utility stocks like Spark which pay a good dividend as investors look for better returns on their money.
Davidson said Spark and Chorus were also likely to be attracting interest from Australian investors due to telco stocks in Australia having a poor run of late.
Kathmandu's strong result this week shows the company has found itself again after being completely lost in the wilderness three years ago, says Castle Point fund manager Stephen Bennie.
The outdoor gear retailer reported at net profit of $50.5 million for the year ended July 31, an increase of $12.5m compared with the prior year, prompting a positive rise in its share price.
But Bennie said the question from here was how well the company transitioned from a recovery phase to one of international expansion and acquisition integration.
"History tells us these are more challenging activities and require a different skill set from management.
"Time will tell but shareholders should be realistic about the fact that the next three years may not be such an easy tramp."
Shares in Kathmandu closed at $3.20 yesterday.
There is speculation that Fletcher Building could see more writedowns in the face of delays on its convention centre and commercial bay projects.
In its annual report this week, it was revealed that SkyCity would be withholding $26.9m from Fletcher Building in liquidated damages because of issues building the $700m international convention centre.
The project was initially due to be finished in the first three months of 2019 but SkyCity announced last July that it was would be mid 2019. Now it has said it won't be finished until Christmas next year.
Bennie said the speculation that Fletcher's writedown may not be over was understandable.
"In the past month the market has been informed of further delays at the Convention Centre and Commercial Bay, both projects were due for an already delayed completion in mid-2019. That has now been pushed back again to December 2019 at best for both projects."
Bennie said on the plus side for Fletcher any further writedowns shouldn't require another rights issue.
"But they will potentially knock the markets faith in the forecasts of the new CEO," he said.
Fletcher Building shares have slipped from just under $7 to $6.23 in the last month and are down close to 20 per cent in the last year.