MARKET CLOSE: NZ shares up, Xero and NZX gain while Summerset Group falls

Friday 8th December 2017

New Zealand shares gained in continued light trading, led higher by Xero and NZX.

The S&P/NZX50 Index rose 62.49 points, or 0.8 percent, to 8,235.09. Within the index, 29 stocks rose, 12 fell and nine were unchanged. Turnover was $138 million.

"The volumes have really gone into Christmas mode," said David Price, broker at Forsyth Barr. "Turnover is very light for a lot of the leaders, and some of the movements have been very pronounced but not on very big volumes. Even in the bigger, liquid stocks, they're getting skewed at the end. At the moment there's not much on the other side in some stocks so we are getting quite big movements in the matches."

Xero was the best performer, up 3 percent to $30.90. NZX rose 2.8 percent to $1.12 and Z Energy gained 2.6 percent to $7.82.

"There's not a lot of company news, as you'd expect," Price said. "The market has had 11 months positive, it's been a pretty big year and people are quite happy - there's certainly an eye on the countdown to the summer holidays."

Summerset Group Holdings was the worst performer, down 1.3 percent to $5.18, with Comvita falling 0.7 percent to $7.45 and Sanford down 0.6 percent to $8.25.

Outside the benchmark index, TIL Logistics Group closed at $2.75. The New Plymouth-based trucking and logistics company, formerly known as Transport Investments, joined the bourse yesterday after completing a reverse listing through Bethunes Investments, although buyers and sellers didn't manage to meet on day one. The reverse listing placed an implied equity value on the company of $122.2 million at the $1.50 share price, meaning today's closing price was at an 83 percent premium.

Fliway Group was unchanged at $1.21. Its shareholders have backed a $55.4 million takeover offer from Singaporean logistics firm Yang Kee Logistics, which will see another company leave the NZX.

At a special meeting in Auckland today, almost 99 percent of votes cast were in favour of the $1.22 per share offer, which was at the upper end of the valuation range by independent adviser KordaMentha. The transaction was via a scheme implementation agreement, meaning it needed at least 50 percent of the total shares cast, and of that, 75 percent had to be in favour. Almost 68 percent of stock on issue was cast, including the holding of controlling shareholder and chief executive Duncan Hawkesby.

(BusinessDesk)

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