Market Announcements
Market Summary
A trio of earnings reports yesterday were overshadowed by yet another takeover bid on the New Zealand sharemarket. The benchmark S&P/NZX 50 climbed 0.63% to 12,970.64 points on Monday with 29.5 million shares worth $147m changing hands.
Despite being in the throes of earnings season, the big news of the day was small-cap Comvita. The Mānuka honey company received a takeover bid from Florenz, a subsidiary of Mark Stewart's investment company, Masthead. If successful, shareholders will receive 80 cents per share (cps), a premium of 67% to Comvita’s closing share price on Aug 15. Shares rose 58.33% to 76 cents after the bid, which has unanimous support from the board, was announced.
The a2 Milk Company jumped 2.64% to $8.95 after it announced in its annual result that it had inked a long-awaited deal to purchase Yashili’s NZ plant for $282m. It also sold its stake in Mataura Valley Milk to Open Country Dairy. The dairy firm dominated volumes on Monday, with over $40m in value traded.
Contact Energy reported a 13% increase in net profit after tax (npat) to $331m on the back of new geothermal generation. The results include a one-off $98m gain from releasing a provision on its Ahuroa Gas Storage (AGS) contract. Excluding that non-cash adjustment, underlying profit was $261m, well ahead of 2024. The stock gained 1.34% to $9.05.
Freightways rose 1.56% to $11.74 after it too disclosed a lift in profits. The firm noted that GDP figures for NZ had contracted in the year to March, whereas its revenue for the 2025 year was up 6.6% to $1.3 billion.
Small-cap firm Blis Technologies was the day’s largest decliner, falling 5.26% to 1.8 cents after disclosing "one-off cost pressures" had impacted profit in a quarterly update.
Away from earnings, Michael Hill International shares climbed 1.12% to 45 cents after it announced the appointment of Jonathan Waecker as its new chief executive officer. Andrew Lowe, who has served as interim CEO since Daniel Bracken passed away in February, will resume his position as chief financial and supply chain officer.
Mercury has reported its full-year results this morning - ebitdaf came to $786m, down $91m from the prior year.
Infratil will hold its annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday. Mercury rose 2.08% to $6.39 on Monday, while Infratil lifted 2.22% to $12.205.
Source: Business Desk
Australian Market Report
Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 11 points lower at 8923.
- close [Morningstar with AAP]: The local bourse has achieved a new record finish in a choppy start to the trading week, as investors continue to weigh company earnings against their valuations.
The S&P/ASX200 hit a new intraday peak of 8,963, but finished 20.7 points higher for the day, up 0.23 per cent, to a record close of 8,959.3 as the broader All Ordinaries gained 21.4 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 9,233.5.
The slow session followed a weak Friday lead from Wall Street, disappointing Ukraine peace talks at the weekend and as local investors looked to a huge week of financial reporting, Capital.com market analyst Kyle Rodda said.
"To what extent can companies post profits that justify a market at record highs, and although the market isn't at record highs for purely domestic factors, you want some earning support there," he told AAP.
"The bar is set pretty high for local companies right now."
NAB's quarterly profit update was well received by investors on Monday, who pushed its shares 2.7 per cent higher to $40.23, helping the financial sector gain 0.7 per cent.
CBA shares rose 1.2 per cent to $170.19, recovering but still roughly five per cent short of its pre-results price a week before, when a record $10.3 billion cash profit wasn't enough to entice buyers to the world's most expensive bank.
Eight of 11 local sectors finished higher, led by a 1.1 per cent rally in communications stocks as REA Group surged roughly four per cent after naming Cameron McIntyre to replace exiting veteran CEO Owen Wilson.
Telstra also boosted segment performance and was up 1.7 per cent to $4.93 since its earnings call on Thursday.
The materials and energy sectors underperformed, down 0.8 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively, as iron ore prices slipped below $US102 a tonne, weighing on BHP (down 1.2 per cent) and Fortescue (down 1.5 per cent).
BlueScope Steel slumped more than three per cent to $23.48 after it reported a net profit of $84 million, down from $806 million the year before.
Local goldminers were mixed, with futures for the precious metal consolidating in a tight range since Friday and trading about $US3,395 ($A5,212) an ounce.
Lendlease and GPT Group helped lift the real estate sector, with Lendlease rallying 6.7 per cent to $5.92 after a restructure and strategy shift swung its books to profit following two years in the red.
IT stocks were up 0.8 per cent, with strong performances from accounting software Xero (up 1.1 per cent) and tracking software Life360 (up 1.3 per cent).
Xero will report its earnings on Thursday.
Turning to Tuesday, sector giants BHP and CSL will hand down full-year results, while Woodside will report on its first half.
BHP and CSL - with a combined market cap of $344 billion and together accounting for 11 cents in every dollar of value in the top-500 ASX stocks - have the capacity to move the market on Tuesday.
The Australian dollar has been grinding higher against the greenback, buying 65.13 US cents, up slightly from 65.07 on Friday at 5pm.
ON THE ASX:
The S&P/ASX200 rose 20.7 points on Monday, or 0.23 per cent, to 8,959.3
The broader All Ordinaries gained 21.4 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 9,233.5
The NZX 50 Lost -61.21 points (-0.47%) to 12909.43
Companies commencing Ex-Dividend Trading Today (ASX 300):
Computershare Limited
QBE Insurance Group Limited
Suncorp Group Limited
Overseas Market Report
[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:
U.S. stocks ended mixed. The DJIA slipped 0.1% to 44,911.82, the S&P 500 was unchanged at 6,449.15 and the Nasdaq was unchanged at 21,629.77.
Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Dayforce Inc DAY surging 25.96%, First Solar Inc FSLR jumped 9.68%, and The Trade Desk Inc TTD lifted 5.40%.
The biggest decliners were EQT Corp EQT which dropped 4.43%, Intel Corp INTC fell 3.75%, and Coterra Energy Inc CTRA lost 3.37%.
Asia
Chinese shares closed higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.8% to 3,728.03 and the Shenzhen Composite Index lifted 1.8% to 2,341.17.
Hong Kong shares ended lower. The benchmark Hang Seng Index slipped 0.4% to 25,176.85.
Japanese shares ended higher. The Nikkei Stock Average gained 0.8% to 43,714.31.
India shares ended higher. The BSE SENSEX lifted 0.8% to 81,273.75.
Europe
Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index rose 0.2% to 9,157.74. In Europe, shares closed lower. The Germany's DAX fell 0.2% to 24,314.77, and the France's CAC 40 declined 0.5% to 7,884.05
