"Pretty disappointing result all round from Fonterra, the price is down some 6 per cent and it probably deserves to be," said Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners. "The profit was much lower than market expectations, the dividend guidance was downgraded from where people expected it to be, it looks like full-year profits will be lower than where markets expected them to be, costs look to be higher, capital expenditure looks to be higher, so it was a pretty poor result all round."
Spark fell 5.3 per cent, or 16.5c, to $2.975 as it shed rights to its 9c per share interim dividend. Fletcher Building declined 2.8 per cent, or 25c, to $8.65 as it gave up rights to its 18c per share dividend. "It's a bit of a red herring with those two, as all they've done is fallen to reflect the dividend they've been paid," Lister said.
Kathmandu Holdings was the best performer on the benchmark index climbing 2.9 per cent to $1.44, after being smacked down some 13 per cent on Tuesday when the outdoor goods retailer posted a loss of $1.8 million in the six months ended January 31, from a profit of $11.4 million the previous period.
"It got pounded [on Tuesday]," Lister said. "It rallied going into the result and it was obviously weaker than expected, or it just didn't have the good news people were looking for so [the] reaction is probably a bit of a bounce from having fallen so much earlier in the week."
Contact Energy was unchanged at $5.90. The energy generator and retailer has fallen some 6 per cent since the start of the year, after it kept its first-half dividend unchanged and said it would look overseas for better returns after first-half earnings fell in what it called an oversupply in the New Zealand electricity market.
"The jury is out on Contact, it's out of favour because we're all a bit unsure on what management is doing in terms of the expansion strategy," Lister said.
