Market close: Retirement village stocks weaker as sharemarket slips

The retirement village stocks were weaker.

The New Zealand sharemarket slipped nearly half a per cent as the latest reporting season was met with light trading.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index bounced around and after reaching an intraday high of 11,150.4, it closed at 11,093.03 – down 47.36 points or 0.43 per cent.

There were 65 gainers and 57 decliners over the whole market on volumes of 17.55 million share transactions worth $53.53 million.

Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said the market was extremely quiet, with some of the broking community at an investment conference in Australia.

He said there was some uncertainty in the market with a lot of company downgrades coming through and high interest rates attracting term deposits.

“Summerset Group and a2 Milk may move out of the MSCI Small Cap Index on Wednesday. And a2 Milk [down 8c to $4.05] reports on Thursday, which is keenly awaited,” Goodson said.

ANZ fell more than 3 per cent and Manawa Energy nearly 2 per cent after reporting their latest financial results.

ANZ Group was down 93c or 3.34 per cent to $26.90, with operating income reaching $20.459 billion, up 5 per cent, and cash profit $7.4b, an increase of 14 per cent for the year ending September. ANZ New Zealand’s revenue was $5.013b and cash profit $2.262b, up 10 per cent.

Goodson said ANZ had a slight miss on net interest margin expectations but the asset quality was not yet showing deterioration, though “we are seeing signs of a string of bad debt at the margin”.

Manawa, declining 9c or 1.98 per cent to $4.46, reported a 24 per cent decline in half-year revenue to $217.64m and an 86 per cent fall in net profit to $55.9m but last year’s profit included the $349m sale of the Trustpower retail business to Mercury.

Manawa’s generation increased 14 per cent to 1110GWh and electricity sold to customers declined 8 per cent to 536GWh. Full-year operating earnings (ebitdaf) guidance is unchanged at $120m-$140m, with capital expenditure at $65m-$80m.

Goodson said Manawa’s result was largely in line and it was good to see the capex guidance well below market expectation, considering the company has small, old dams to maintain.

Contact Energy, which reports on Wednesday, declined 9c to $7.73. It detailed mass market electricity and gas sales of 349GWh in October, down from 372GWh in the same month last year, but contracted wholesale electricity sales increased to 742GWh, from 638GWh.

Scott Technology fell 24c or 6.15 per cent to $3.66 after rejecting takeover offers from several parties. Scott’s independent directors felt the offers did not reflect fair value of the company.

The retirement village stocks were weaker. Summerset was down 12c to $9.78; Ryman Healthcare also declined 12c or 2.08 per cent to $5.65; Arvida Group decreased 5c or 4.5 per cent to $1.06; and Oceania Healthcare shed 4c or 5.56 per cent to 68c.

Ebos Group declined 66c to $36.54; Mainfreight shed 85c to $62.30; Freightways was down 25c or 3.21 per cent to $7.55; Synlait decreased 4c or 2.9 per cent to $1.34; and Stride Property shed 4c or 3.03 per cent to $1.28.

Other decliners were Restaurant Brands, falling 19c or 5.41 per cent to $3.20; Winton Land, giving up 14c or 5.83 per cent to $2.26; CDL Investments, decreasing 2c or 2.5 per cent to 78c; and Just Life down 2c or 5.33 per cent to 35.5c.

PaySauce gained 2.5c or 10.64 per cent to 26c after announcing an agreement to install its payroll technology with a new customer and deliver a significant increase in annual recurring revenue.

Heartland Group gained 4c or 2.48 per cent to $1.65; Napier Port rose 14c or 6.31 per cent to $2.36; Rakon was up 2c or 2.82 per cent to 73c; Argosy property improved 2c or 1.84 per cent to $1.105; and Vital Healthcare Property Trust increased 5c or 2.46 per cent to $2.08.