MARKET WRAP: NZ shares little changed; Australian bank stocks rise

The New Zealand market was little changed today on light trading volumes as investors kept an eye on Australian company results.

The NZX50 index was down 28.51 points, or 0.32%, to 8917.59, on turnover of $95 million.

Despite a quiet trading day on the NZX, says Craigs Investment Partners senior investment adviser Nigel Scott, although the Australian NZX-listed bank stocks “all went up quite strongly.”

ANZ shares gained 1.62%, or 51c, to $32.06 and Westpac shares rose 1.24%, or 40c, to $32.57.

Fletcher Building shares gained 10c to $7. On Monday the company appointed a new chief executive to head its troubled construction division, Peter Reidy, who is KiwiRail’s chief executive, and also moved current construction chief executive, Michelle Kernahan, to head the building products division.

Summerset Group shares rose 13c to $7.80. Last week, the retirement village operator forecast underlying profit for the six months to June 30 would come in between $43-45 million, which is up 21-26% on the same period last year.

Trade Me shares gained 7c to $4.90. Last month, chief executive Jon Macdonald announced he is stepping down from the company in about five months after 15 years at the helm.

A2 Milk shares fell 2.36%, or 26c, to $10.75 and Mr Scott says A2’s share price has been “a bit soft” over the past week.

“There was a broker report out of Australia talking about potentially lower margins now there’s a few more competitors" in the Chinese infant formula market.

Nestle recently launched sales of its own brand of infant formula using only a2 milk.

Synlait Milk, which manufactures A2 Milk's Platinum brand of infant formula for the Chinese market, saw its share fall too, shedding 15c to $10.70.

Z Energy’s share price continued to tumble after yesterday’s announcement that profits will be impacted by supply chain disruption and high petrol prices. Today Z shares fell a further 13c to $7.17.

With Australian companies posting some strong results, investors will be eagerly anticipating New Zealand’s result season which is just around the corner, Mr Scott says.