“Some more encouraging noises around the economy and the frontier of sales, potentially more positive for the economy downstream which is great,” Smith said.
Fonterra’s farmers voted strongly in favour of the sale of its Mainland consumer and related businesses to France’s Lactalis for $4.22 billion.
The co-op said 88.47% of the total farmer votes were in support of the deal, with analysts estimating it is worth about $400,000 in total for an average farmer.
“It’s been a political football, obviously there has been some well-known criticisms about selling off the ‘crown jewels’.
“I think what it means for the economy could be quite positive in terms of those trickle-down effects, as a lot of farmers anecdotally have been paying down debt over the last 12 to 18 months, so there could be some really nice spending effects for the New Zealand economy.”
The Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund lifted 0.74% or 6c to $8.17 per unit on turnover worth $880,980.08.
Elsewhere, Freightways Group held its annual shareholder meeting, with the company reporting an 8.6% increase in revenue to $347m in the first quarter of its current financial year.
Smith said Freightways had done very well at mitigating pressure, and performed relatively resiliently in quite a weak economy.
Freightways’ share price rallied 4.15% or 57c to $14.30 after 343,005 shares changed hands on turnover worth $4.8m.
Other key performers included Ebos Group, with its share price rising 2.73% or 77c to $28.94, Mainfreight, lifting 1.83% or $1.08 to $60.24, and Fletcher Building, which rose 1.58% or 5c to $3.21.
Meanwhile, Infratil’s share price fell 0.32% or 4c to $12.31, with Mercury Energy following suit, falling 0.77% or 5c to $6.45.
Overseas, Meta shares dived more than 8% in after-hours trading after the tech giant reported a US tax charge took a bite of roughly US$16 billion ($27.6b) out of its quarterly profit.
Microsoft reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, with revenue jumping 18% to US$77.7b. However, shares in the company slid by as much as 3.6% in after-hours trading amid concerns about the pace of AI monetisation.
Finally, Google’s parent Alphabet reported its first-ever US$100b quarterly revenue, powered by strong growth across its core search business and rapidly expanding cloud division that was buoyed by artificial intelligence.
The US dollar strengthened on Wednesday, while Wall Street stocks were mixed after the Federal Reserve indicated its latest interest rate cut might not be repeated in December.
After the US central bank announced a quarter-percentage-point interest rate cut that had been expected, Fed chairman Jerome Powell told reporters another decrease in December “is not a foregone conclusion, far from it”.
The statement jolted US markets, lifting the US dollar and pushing all three US equities briefly into the red.
The Nasdaq later recovered, finishing at a fourth straight record behind another gain by artificial intelligence giant Nvidia, which became the first company to reach a US$5 trillion market value.
The Dow finished modestly lower, while the S&P 500 ended flat.
– Additional reporting AFP
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
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