Meridian Energy was up 11c or 1.89% to $5.92. Photo / Meridian Energy
The New Zealand sharemarket had a fluctuating day on Tuesday, and investors are closely watching the latest annual meeting season for encouraging trading updates.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index traded in a range of 13,305.66 and 13,391.11, and closed at 13,377.85, up 32.89 points or 0.25%. The index has now gained more than 2% for the year.
There were 88 gainers and 48 decliners on volumes of 39.1 million share transactions worth $128 million.
‘An opportunity’
Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said, “We get half-year and full-year updates from companies, and now annual shareholder meetings have become far more important.
”It’s an opportunity for boards to report the latest information.”
He said Meridian and Property for Industry provided “broadly positive updates” at their annual meetings.
“Meridian is talking about cranking up their hydro development, and Property for Industry has good levels of occupancy.“
Back in August, during the reporting season, companies were careful in what they said in their outlooks. Some of the risks they were talking about may not have been any worse.
“If investors can see a grinding recovery of economic activity, then the market will react to this. We are optimistic, and the consumers price index left the door open for more interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank. That’s helpful,” Solly said.
Meridian Energy was up 11c or 1.89% to $5.92, and Property for Industry gained 1c to $2.46.
Fletcher Building, Steel & Tube, Michael Hill and Winton Land are hosting the next annual meetings.
In the United States, the major indices again hit record highs as investors welcomed signs that the 20-day US government shutdown could soon end and that trade tensions between Washington and Beijing were easing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.12% to 46,7067.58 points; the S&P 500 increased 1.07% to 6,735.13; and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.37% to 22,990.54.
Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index was near its all-time high, having gained 0.66% to 9,091.1 points at 6pm NZ time.
Local stocks
Back home, Infratil was up 12c to $12.49; Contact Energy gained 15c to $9.30; Briscoe Group recovered 7c to $5.11; ANZ Bank increased 61c to $42.29; and Eroad added another 5c or 2.78% to $1.85. Scott Technology, with $170m worth of forward work and net debt of $12.3m, increased 33c or 11.96% to $3.09 after reporting an 84% rise in net profit to $14.21m for the year ending August.
Revenue was steady at $275.27m, and operating earnings (ebitda) was a record $31.5m, up 19%. Scott said second-half revenue growth of 13% offset a softer first half of the financial year, and it benefited from higher margin contracts.
Scott, forecasting revenue of $530m by 2030, is paying a final dividend of 5c a share on Nov 19.
Vector, up 1c to $5, increased electricity connections 1.2% to 634,269 for the year ending September, though new connections declined 7% in the final three months compared with the same period last year. Electricity volume distributed was up 1.3% to 2460GWh.
Among the decliners were Ebos Group down 34c to $28.30; Serko decreasing 9c or 3.1% to $2.81; AFT Pharmaceuticals falling 18c or 5.57% to $3.05; Tourism Holdings easing 9c or 3.52% to $2.47; and Rakon down 3c or 3.41% to 85c.
Being AI continued to climb despite a trade with caution warning from NZ RegCo’s market surveillance unit. Being was up 1.8c or 10% to 19.8c, after sitting at 4c in mid-August.
NZ RegCo said it acknowledged the limited volume of shares traded but is concerned that the price move may not be justified. A price inquiry was issued on October 7 when Being reached 10c, and Being confirmed that it was complying with continuous disclosure obligations.
Metro Performance Glass was up 0.001c to 4.7c after Viridian NZ withdrew its takeover offer. Metro said that with the completion of the recapitalisation and new three-year banking package, it can now focus on the continued turnaround of the business.
Comvita, unchanged at 76c, released a statement from co-founder Alan Bougen confirming that he is leading a group of shareholders and other interested parties with the common purpose of opposing the proposed takeover by Florenz.
The statement said the group was intending to formulate and propose an alternative funding proposal that “we believe will be superior to the Florenz bid”.
A special meeting will be held on November 14 for shareholders to vote on the scheme of arrangement. The Comvita board continues to unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favour of the scheme with Florenz in the absence of a superior proposal.
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