MARKET CLOSE: NZX 50 gains; RBD, SPY, TEL up

MARKET CLOSE: NZX 50 marks 7th day of gains; RBD jumps, SPY, TEL rise

March 4 (BusinessWire) – New Zealand’s benchmark NZX 50 Index rounded out its seventh day of gains after Restaurant Brands said annual profit beat its own forecast and Telecom Corp. climbed from near a record low.

The NZX 50 rose 15.03, or 0.5% to 3213.55. Within the index, 30 shares rose, 10 fell and 10 were unchanged. Turnover was $76.4 million.

Restaurant Brands, which holds the franchise for KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks coffee outlets, climbed 8.8% to $1.98, having touched a 7 ½-year high $2.03 in intraday trading. Full-year profit excluding non trading items was about $19.5 million, beating the company’s Nov. 30 forecast of $17.5 million on KFC sales and a renegotiated supplier contract.

“They are doing a lot of the basics right,” said Craig Brown, who helps manage $3.3 billion at ING New Zealand. “Conditions are tough and people are going to KFC rather than restaurants but there’s more to it than that. They are being a lot smarter running the business.”

Kathmandu Holdings, the outdoor equipment retailer with stores in Australia, climbed 3.7% to $2.23 as the kiwi dollar weakened further against its Australian counterpart. A weaker currency makes New Zealand products more competitive in the nation’s biggest market.

“It’s a key swing factor for a lot of companies and for New Zealand Inc.,” ING’s Brown said. The expanding Australian economy “means our guys have got a market to sell into.”

Fletcher Building, which sells steel products, insulation, laminated board and concrete in Australia, edged up 0.3% to $8.12.

Telecom rose 2.3% to 2.3% to $2.26, having sunk as low as $2.18 this week amid further fallout from outages on its XT network, including a decision by Wellington’s district health board to suspend its contract.

SmartPay Ltd., the EFTPOS company that acquired assets from the failed ProvencoCadmus group, rose 5% to 4 cents after announcing that it expects to make an underlying profit this year and is working through its existing debt facilities as it prepares to expand. EBITDA will be $1.5 million to $2 million in the 12 months through March, compared to a loss of $2.5 million a year earlier.

Pyne Gould Corp. gained 2.3% to 45 cents. The finance group’s announcement last week of a return to profit with first-half earnings of $10.1m was encouraging as it was in line with its prospectus forecast of last year, apart from the one-time charge for an irregular loan at MARAC, McDouall Stuart said in a report.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances rose 1.6% to 63 cents and Sky City Entertainment Group, which has benefited from stronger results from its casinos in Adelaide and Darwin, climbed 1.6% to 3.26.

Air New Zealand rose 1.5% to $1.32 and New Zealand Refining climbed 1.5% to $3.30.

Pan Pacific Petroleum, which has flip-flopped between being the biggest gainer and biggest decliner on the index, dropped 6.1% to 31 cents.

(BusinessWire)