Delegat Provides A Bubbly End To NZ Reporting Season

The New Zealand sharemarket ended with a modest gain on Friday, with major wine exporter Delegat Group leading the rises despite reporting a fall in earnings. The S&P/NZX 50 Index closed 27.65 points (0.21%) higher at 12,930.73, with 35 million shares, worth $164.1m trading. There were 79 gains and 58 falls on the main board.

Port of Tauranga (POT) gained 15c or 2.2% to $7.06 after reporting a 23% lift in its underlying net profit to $126m for the June year. The bellwether stock suffered a setback on Wednesday when a judicial review of its fast-track application for the Stella Passage development halted the expansion work. Looking ahead, global trade tensions and tariff uncertainty continued to cast a shadow on market confidence and could limit momentum, POT said, adding it would provide an earnings outlook at its annual meeting on Oct 31.

Wine exporter Delegat Group rallied 39c or 10.66% to $4.05 after reporting a 14% decline in operating net profit to $51m and a 12% fall in global sales to 3.2m cases. Delegat is forecasting to lift case sales by 13% over the next three years.

Retirement village company Summerset rallied 34c or 3.2% to $10.99 after Thursday’s result, which revealed a 26% lift in its first half net profit to $127.2m.

Comvita sticky Honey exporter Comvita eased a cent to 75c after reporting a net loss before tax of $21.9m, which was in line with the company’s guidance range of $20m-$24m.

A strong result from Australian data centre company NextDC failed to rub off on infrastructure investor Infratil, which has exposure to data centres, the stock falling 22c to $11.36. Among the market minnows, Solution Dynamics (SDL) gained 6c to 66c after announcing a 7.1% decline in net profit to $2.62m in the June year. The company stated that if the share price remains at current levels, share buybacks will be undertaken. Over the last 12 months, SDL’s share price has fallen by 48%.

Source: Business Desk

Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 25 points lower at 8912.

- close [Morningstar with AAP]: The Australian share market has edged modestly lower to round out the most volatile earning season in recent memory.

The benchmark ASX200 index on Friday lost 6.9 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 8,973.1, while the broader All Ordinaries gained 1.9 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 9,243.

For the month the ASX200 rose 2.6 per cent, its best month since its 3.8 per cent rise in May.

AMP deputy chief economist Diana Mousina said that despite the strong rally in August, which she noted is a seasonally weak month for shares, markets were still at risk of a correction in September given stretched valuations and risks around US tariffs and US debt.

Morningstar equity strategist Lochlan Halloway said the most noteworthy thing about Australia's corporate reporting season, which spans the month of August, was share market volatility.

"We're accustomed to seeing small, thinly covered stocks swinging wildly on results day," he said.

"A 20 per cent or even 30 per cent move isn't completely out of the ordinary. But we're not used to seeing the blue chips behave like this."

CSL collapsed 30 per cent on its results day last week, while James Hardie plunged 17 per cent.

This week, Woolworths dropped 15 per cent when it reported its earnings on Wednesday, in its worst single-day selloff since 1994.

"These are once-in-a-generation moves, and we've seen three in a fortnight," Mr Halloway said, adding that passive money and algorithmic trading may well be "amplifying the noise".

Harvey Norman and Austal were the two big winner of the last day of earning season, with both climbing by double digits.

Harvey Norman soared 11.5 per cent to an all-time high of $6.89 after the electronics and homewares retailer and property owner reported that its full-year profit after tax rose 47 per cent to $518 million, thanks mostly to the impact of property revaluations.

"The FY25 result is a testament to the strength of our diversified business model and the disciplined execution of our long-term strategy," chairman Gerry Harvey said.

Austal rose 15.1 per cent to an all-time high of $7.77 after the shipbuilder reported its full-year revenue jumped 24.1 per cent to $1.8 billion, while net profit soared sixfold to $89.7 million.

With seven more ships ordered in 2024/25 and 49 under construction, Austal said it had a secure order book for years of work.

In tech, NextDC soared 17.4 per cent to $16.50, a day after the data centre operator said its full-year net revenue grew 14 per cent to $350.2 million - slightly beating guidance of $340 million to $350 million.

CEO and managing director Craig Scroggie said that NextDC was "scaling for extraordinary AI and cloud demand across Asia-Pacific."

The big four banks were all in the red, with CBA down 1.8 per cent to $170.03, NAB dropping 0.4 per cent to $42.79, Westpac retreating 1.0 per cent to $38.61 and ANZ dipping 0.1 per cent to $33.67.

In the heavyweight mining sector, BHP rose 0.4 per cent to $43.19, Rio Tinto grew 0.1 per cent to $115.47 and Fortescue dipped 0.2 per cent to $19.30.

The Australian dollar was buying 65.35 US cents, from 65.10 US cents on Thursday.

ON THE ASX:

The S&P/ASX200 dropped 6.9 points on Friday, or 0.08 per cent, to 8,973.1

The broader All Ordinaries gained 1.9points, or 0.02 per cent, to 9,243.

The NZX 50 added 20.47 points (0.16%) to 12951.2

Companies commencing Ex-Dividend Trading Today (ASX 300):

Aurizon Holdings Limited

Australian Clinical Labs Limited

Fortescue Ltd

Jumbo Interactive Limited

Karoon Energy Ltd

Pinnacle Investment Management Group Limited

Propel Funeral Partners

Tabcorp Holdings Limited

[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:

U.S. stocks ended lower. The DJIA slipped 0.2% to 45,544.88, the S&P 500 dropped 0.6% to 6,460.26 and the Nasdaq declined 1.2% to 21,455.55.

Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Autodesk Inc ADSK surging 9.07%, The Cooper Companies Inc COO jumped 4.36%, and JM Smucker Co SJM lifted 3.61%.

The biggest decliners were Dell Technologies Inc DELL which dropped 8.88%, Ulta Beauty Inc ULTA fell 7.14%, and Oracle Corp ORCL lost 5.90%.

Asia

Chinese shares closed higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4% to 3,857.93 and the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 0.5% to 2,443.68.

Hong Kong shares ended higher. The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 0.3% to 25,077.62.

Japanese shares ended lower. The Nikkei Stock Average slipped 0.3% to 42,718.47.

India shares ended lower. The BSE SENSEX dropped 0.3% to 79,809.65.

Europe

Stocks in the U.K. finished lower. The FTSE 100 Index slipped 0.3% to 9,187.34. In Europe, shares closed lower. The Germany's DAX fell 0.6% to 23,902.21, and the France's CAC 40 fell 0.8% to 7,703.90