NZ shares gain as F&P has solid first half

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare cracked $12 billion in market value. Photo / File

NZ shares rose as Fisher & Paykel Healthcare gained, cracking $12 billion in market value after lifting first-half profit.

Fisher & Paykel, which raised its annual earnings outlook in October, was up by 1.6 per cent to $21.10 after it said first-half earnings were up 24 per cent.

Hamilton Hindin Greene advisor Grant Williamson said the result was "strong" although not unexpected.

"That result was pretty much flagged, so not too much of a surprise, which shows in the small price increase we saw today," he added.

The S&P/NZX50 50 Index rose by 76.27 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 11,120.81, Within the index, 21 stocks rose, 21 fell, and eight were unchanged.

Ryman Healthcare was the index's biggest gainer, rising 5.1 per cent to $14.95.

"A lot of that buying seems to be driven out of Australia and Ryman is expanding quite aggressively in the Victorian market so there is a bit of an Australian flavour to that stock," Williamson said.

Summerset Group also rose 1.9 per cent to $7.69 after it announced that it had approval to build a retirement village in Auckland's St Johns and confirmed it had bought more land in Christchurch.

Metlifecare was the day's biggest decliner, falling 3.8 per cent to $5.86. Williamson said the market was paring back some of the retirement operator's major gains from yesterday's MSCI index reweighting.

Big companies making gains today included A2 Milk which rose 2 per cent to $15.10, which Williamson said was driven by Australian buyers. Meridian Energy has recovered and closed up by 1.8 per cent to $4.48. The energy company's share price had been knocked around since the announcement last month that the Tiwai Point smelter could close, said Williamson.

Z Energy rose 3.8 per cent to $5.17, which Willamson said appeared to be due to bargain hunting. The market is also reacting to news Caltex in Australia is the subject of a takeover bid.

Fletcher Building fell by 2 per cent to $5.24, ahead of its annual meeting tomorrow.

"Obviously the Australian building market is under a fair amount of pressure and any convention centre news will be interesting," Willamson added.

Outside the benchmark index, Cavalier Corporation fell by 5.2 per cent to 28 cents after the company provided first-half guidance at its annual meeting today.

The wool producer said first-half revenue for 2020 is expected to be between $61-64m, from $70m in the first half of this year, while earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation is expected to be in the range of $1.2-$1.9m from $4.6m.

Turners Automotive Group rose by 1.6 per cent to $2.58 after the car auction house said group revenue was up by 1 per cent to $171m and underlying net profit before tax had risen by 11 per cent to $14.8m.