Delegat's Marlborough winery. Photo / Supplied
The New Zealand sharemarket ended with a modest gain, with major wine exporter Delegat Group leading the rises despite reporting a fall in earnings.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index closed 27.65 points (0.21%) higher at 12,930.73, with 34.9 million shares worth $164 million trading.
There were 79 gains and 58 falls on the main board.
Overnight, Wall Street’s S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average hit new highs.
Port of Tauranga (POT) gained 15c or 2.2% to $7.06 after reporting a 23% lift in its underlying net profit to $126m for the June year.
The bellwether stock suffered a setback on Wednesday when a judicial review of its fast-track application for the Stella Passage development halted the expansion work.
Looking ahead, global trade tensions and tariff uncertainty continued to cast a shadow on market confidence and could limit momentum, POT said, adding it would provide an earnings outlook at its annual meeting on October 31.
Salt Funds managing director Matt Goodson said the day’s results ended what had been a volatile reporting season.
“It wasn’t great, but it was not as bad as it could have been,” he said.
“We had POT, which was very much in line with our expectations, but proving itself to be a safe harbour in a storm,” he said.
“The fact that it gained after an in-line result shows that people are willing to pay up for certainty at the moment,” he said.
Wine exporter Delegat Group rallied 39c or 10.66% to $4.05 after reporting a 14% decline in operating net profit to $51m and a 12% fall in global sales to 3.2 million cases.
Delegat is forecasting a 13% lift in case sales over the next three years.
Goodson said Delegat’s result was much better than people had feared, with the company having been “under the cosh” for some time.
“It’s obviously had pressure from declining alcohol consumption and US tariffs, and from its major market – the UK – being in recession.
“But they’ve still managed to report a credible result,” he said.
Retirement village company Summerset rallied 34c or 3.2% to $10.99 after Thursday’s result, which revealed a 26% lift in its first-half net profit to $127.2m.
Goodson said opinions were divided in regard to Summerset.
“There are certainly some bulls and they like the sizeable development that Summerset is doing, and they like its exposure to a potential improvement in the housing market,” he said.
“But with all the stock that they have to sell, the bears would tend to focus on the fact that the sales they are making aren’t being matched necessarily by cash inflows at the time of sale.”
Honey exporter Comvita eased a cent to 75c after reporting a net loss before tax of $21.9m, which was in line with the company’s guidance range of $20-24m.
Jarden said Comvita is in a challenging position as it attempts to regain market share while improving margin, reducing its operating cost base and making progress on its balance sheet.
Goodson said a strong result from Australian data centre company NextDC failed to rub off on infrastructure investor Infratil, which has exposure to data centres, the stock falling 22c to $11.36.
Among the market minnows, Solution Dynamics (SDL) gained 6c to 66c after announcing a 7.1% decline in net profit to $2.62m in the June year.
The company said that if the share price remained around current levels, share buybacks will be undertaken.
Over the last 12 months, SDL’s share price has fallen by 48%.
Jamie Gray is an Auckland-based journalist, covering the financial markets, primary sector and energy. He joined the Herald in 2011.