NZ shares mixed; Ryman, Metlifecare gain

Gordon Macleod, chief executive of Ryman Healthcare. Photo / Nick Reed

New Zealand shares were mixed in light trading ahead of next week's major index reweighting, with gains led by the retirement sector and A2 Milk Co, while Heartland Bank and Fletcher Building dropped.

The S&P/NZX50 Index rose 25.24 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 8,619.83. Within the index, 20 stocks gained, 21 fell and nine were unchanged. Turnover was $110.5 million.

"These MSCI changes which get announced on the 14th are holding a spell over the market at the moment," said Peter McIntyre, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.

"It's a bit directionless in that period prior to reporting season, the market is trading up without a lot of volume running through. There's not a lot of volume in the stocks leading the gainers or decliners."

The retirement sector led gainers today, with Ryman Healthcare up 3.1 per cent to $10.99, Metlifecare rising 1.9 per cent to $5.91, and Summerset Group advanced 1.6 per cent to $7.18.

"Those three have performed exceptionally well today, though a lot of them are trading on lightish volume," McIntyre said. "There's no real reason why they're trading up but we can potentially put it down to changes in the MSCI that might happen."

A2 Milk rose 1.1 per cent to $12.89 and New Zealand Refining Co gained 0.8 per cent to $2.41.

Heartland Bank was the worst performer, down 1.7 per cent to $1.75.

Fletcher Building dropped 1.2 per cent to $6.45. The company completed the institutional component of its $750m capital raise last month, generating gross proceeds of $515m, and the retail component of Fletcher's capital raise opened on April 23 and closes on Friday.

"The bookbuild will be interesting for those entitlements that weren't taken up for Fletchers," McIntyre said.

"It has probably surprised a few where it has been trading, that ex-entitlement price probably comes out around $6.15 so it has been trading above that. Obviously it has been getting good support via institutions wanting to top up, more on that value proposition for Fletchers."

Vector dipped 0.6 per cent to $3.21. Chair Michael Stiassny says he won't seek re-election at this year's annual meeting because he no longer has the support of controlling shareholder Entrust Trustees, which owns 75.1 per cent of Vector and represents its electricity network customers.

Scales Corp gained 0.2 per cent to $4.76. After the market closed, Scales announced it has agreed to sell its coldstorage businesses for $151.4m to Emergent Cold, a global cold chain company that recently acquired the Swire coldstorage assets in Australia and Vietnam. The transaction is subject to Overseas Investment Office approval.