MARKET CLOSE: NZ shares rise as Pushpay rebounds

MARKET CLOSE: NZ shares rise as Pushpay rebounds, Precinct gains, Sky TV drops

By Sophie Boot

June 20 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand shares rebounded from yesterday's 1.2 percent loss, led higher by Precinct Properties New Zealand and Westpac Banking Corp.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 42.55 points, or 0.5 percent, to 8,905.79. Within the index, 30 stocks rose, 15 fell and five were unchanged. Turnover was $138.9 million.

"Overall, sentiment has been fairly positive. It was a bad day for the market yesterday and recovery today - it's not a bad result given the performance of the US market last night," said Grant Davies, investment adviser at Hamilton Hindin Greene.

Precinct Properties New Zealand was the best performer, up 2.7 percent to $1.35.

The dual-listed banks rose in New Zealand alongside gains on Australia's ASX, with Westpac Banking Corp up 2.6 percent to $30.70 and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group gaining 2.4 percent to $29.57.

"They've seen their fair share of selling recently [due to Australia's Royal Commission into misconduct in that country's financial services sector]. Today's more of a bounce than anything to get too excited about if you're an owner of the big four banks," Davies said.

Westpac shares are down 11 percent this year, while ANZ's have dropped 6 percent.

Pushpay Holdings gained 1.2 percent to $4.18. The mobile payment app company completed a $100 million bookbuild yesterday, letting executive director Eliot Crowther exit the firm he co-founded. The bookbuild was oversubscribed, with bids subject to scaling, and got offers from 19 institutional investors across New Zealand, Australia and the US, Pushpay said.

The stock led the index lower yesterday, down 5.5 percent to $4.13 after the shares were lifted from the trading halt during the bookbuild.

"It has recovered, and it's at a decent premium to the selldown price, they'll be pretty pleased with how that has played out so far," Davies said. "By the sounds of things, they have good institutional investors on board and it wasn't a huge discount, indicating there's good demand there."

Synlait Milk rose 0.9 percent to $10.74. It will develop its second nutritional powder manufacturing factory for an estimated initial capital investment of $250 million at its new Pokeno site in Waikato, which will be commissioned for the 2019/20 season as it aims to keep up with growing demand for infant formula product.

“Forecast customer demand” prompted Synlait to boost the capacity for its first nutritional spray dryer at Pokeno to 45,000 metric tonnes, up from its initial plan for 40,000 tonnes, the company said in a statement.

Sky Network Television was the worst performer, down 4.5 percent to $2.33. Davies said there was a really large bid-ask spread on the stock, about $2.34 on the bid side and sellers at $2.42, and lots of little trades today.

Summerset Group Holdings fell 1.8 percent to $7.51, Genesis Energy dropped 1.4 percent to $2.45, and Spark New Zealand declined 1.1 percent to $3.71.

Comvita was unchanged at $4.74. It has acquired 20 percent of Uruguay's Apiter for US$6.25 million and signed a long-term supply agreement to secure another source of propolis for sales into Asia. Propolis is made by bees from plant resins to protect and sterilise their hives.

(BusinessDesk)

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