“But a lot depends on what the Reserve Bank does with the Official Cash Rate later this month,” said Smith.
Rocket Lab surged 28.44% to US$18.83 ($32.08) on the Nasdaq Composite after beating analysts’ estimates for third-quarter earnings. In after-hours trading the runaway share price cooled to US$18.71. The stock was at US$3.55 on April 15.
Revenue rose 55% to US$104.8m compared with the analysts’ expectation of US$102.3m in sales.It finished the September quarter with US$292.5m in cash.
Rocket Lab, which signed US$55m in new Electron launch contracts in the third quarter, is forecasting revenue of $125m-$135m for the fourth quarter – double the amount for the previous corresponding period.
Infratil, up 10c to $12.51, reported a 27.6% increase in revenue to $1.822 billion and a net loss of $206.4m for the six months ending September. It is paying an unimputed interim dividend of 7.25c a share on December 10.
The loss compared with a net surplus of $1.1b last year through the revaluation of Infratil’s increased stake in One NZ (formerly Vodafone) and was impacted by a negative $63m of foreign exchange and derivative revaluations.
Infratil’s proportionate operating earnings (ebitdaf) were $506m, up 25% and it narrowed its full-year ebitdaf guidance to $960m-$1b, from $962m-$1.012b.
Smith said looking at the underlying result, Infratil’s proportionate earnings were strong and the One NZ performance was impressive – better than Spark’s.
Sky TV increased 10c or 3.86% to $2.69 after telling shareholders at the annual meeting that “we have a firm path and conviction on our dividend guidance of at least 21c per share”.
Sky said New Zealanders collectively watched more than 58.3m hours of Paris Olympic Games coverage – “which is quite a statistic.”
The television network is prioritising the migration to a new satellite by May next year and negotiating a new rights partnership with New Zealand Rugby and SANZAAR post-2025.
Mercury Energy gained 5.5c to $6.65; a2 Milk rebounded 15c or 2.83% to $5.45; Mainfreight collected 61c to $73.10; Freightways added 10c to $10.50; Westpac rose $1.10 or 3.18% to $35.70; and Napier Port increased 4c or 1.75% to $2.25.
Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund continued climbing, gaining 14c or 2.6% to $5.53. The dairy co-operative which trades at $4.88 is shifting to the main board. Synlait rose 2c or 5.33% to 39.5c.
Other gainers were Tourism Holdings collecting 6c or 3.14% to $1.97; Enprise Group up 3c or 4.35% to 72c; NZX increasing 4c or 2.7% to $1.52; Accordant Group improving 3c or 5.45% to 58c; Green Cross Health adding 3c or 3.75% to 83c; and 2 Cheap Cars up 2c or 2.44% to 84c.
Investore, which concentrates on large format retail buildings such as Countdown supermarkets, was down 4c or 3.48% to $1.11 after reporting half-year revenue of $31.19m, up 2.69% and net profit of $9.66m following a $66.5m loss for the same period last year.
The property company confirmed full-year cash dividend guidance of 6.5c a share which is near the mid-point of its policy of paying between 80-100% of distributable profit.
Amongst other property stocks, Stride increased 4c or 3.13% to $1.32; Argosy was up 2c or 1.83% to $1.11; Goodman Trust added 2c to $2.14; and Kiwi declined 2c or 2.04% to 96c;
Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down 20c to $37; Ebos Group declined 35c to $37.20; Fletcher Building eased 5c to $3.15; Vulcan Steel decreased 14c to $8.40; PaySauce shed 1.5c or 6.98% to 20c; and Tower was down 3c or 2.26 to $1.30.
AFT Pharmaceuticals declined 7c or 2.75% to $2.48; Allied Farmers was down 2c or 2.5% to 78c; Private Land and Property Fund eased 4c or 2.94% to $1.32; TradeWindow fell 2.5c or 9.62% to 23.5; and South Port NZ shed 12c or 2.26% to $5.20.
