MARKET CLOSE: NZ shares rise, led by bounces from NZX, Sky TV, Fletcher Building

Friday 10th March 2017

New Zealand shares gained, with NZX, Sky Network Television and Fletcher Building recovering after selling this week.

The S&P/NZX50 Index rose 36.6 points, or 0.5 percent, to 7,177.58. Within the index, 22 stocks fell, 21 rose and seven were unchanged. Turnover was $112.2 million.

"There have been some quite big moves in the market - you've seen some stocks swing around a bit, names that have been quite weak have rebounded a bit," said James Lindsay, senior portfolio manager at Nikko Asset Management. "Bonds have this week tracked higher so that has impacted some of those yield names this week. It is a yield-dominated market, when offshore investors move orders around we are susceptible to that because so many of our New Zealand names have reasonable, quite substantial offshore holdings."

NZX was the best performer, up 2.8 percent to $1.09, having dropped 5.4 percent this week before today's session, while A2 Milk Co gained 2.4 percent to $2.54.

Sky Network Television rose 2.8 percent to $3.71. It has lost 14 percent since its proposed merger with Vodafone NZ was declined by the Commerce Commission last month.

"It has been relatively weak, there's obviously been a lot of concern on that name following the Voda deal being turned down, and it has bounced a little off its lows," Lindsay said.

Fletcher Building gained 1 percent to $9.29. The stock has been sold off quite aggressively and has bounced off lows today, Lindsay said.

Stride Property was the worst performer, down 1.7 percent to $1.76. Mercury New Zealand fell 1.6 percent to $3.12, Kathmandu Holdings dropped 1.5 percent to $1.92, and Investore Property rose 1.5 percent to $1.32.

Xero dipped 0.2 percent to $18.65. The Wellington-based cloud accounting software developer this week signed deals with the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp and the Development Bank of Singapore to bring the Asian lenders into Xero's expanding 'financial web'. Chief executive Rod Drury says will make it much easier for Australasian businesses to export into the region.

Outside the benchmark index, Auckland-based Rakon gained 5 percent to 21 cents. It has appointed three new directors - Lorraine Witten, Keith Oliver and Yin Tang Tseng - who will put themselves forward for election by shareholders' at the next annual meeting in a refresh of the high-tech manufacturer governance team.

NZME was unchanged at 83 cents. It and Fairfax New Zealand have got another month to convince the Commerce Commission that allowing a merger of the country's two dominant news publishers is in the public interest. The regulator today said it had agreed with the companies to extend the deadline on making a final decision on their merger application, which was to have been announced next Wednesday. The decision has been pushed out to April 11.

T&G Global was unchanged at $3.73. The fruit marketer, controlled by Germany’s BayWa, is selling its FloraMax flower auction business to United Flower Growers for an undisclosed sum. The deal, expected to be completed on or by March 31, comes as FloraMax "no longer aligns with T&G's strategy and focus on its core business and key categories," the company said.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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