Market close: Large cap stocks push sharemarket to another new high

Briscoe Group surged after an upbeat trading report. Photo / File

There was unusual heavy Friday trading, particularly in the large cap stocks, as investors staked their positions before the wind-down to Christmas and pushed the New Zealand sharemarket to a new high.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index climbed 58.88 points or 0.46 per cent to 12,919.25, with 87.44 million shares worth $326.38 million changing hands. There were 68 gainers and 78 decliners over the whole market.

Rickey Ward, head of investment strategy group with JBWere, said it felt like people were working hard to close out for the year.

"Next week or so people will be heading away for the extended break and volume will be lower – that's a known trait – and today we saw a flurry of trading with people wanting to get their positions ready for next year.

"We have seen support in cyclical stocks such as Fletcher Building and a winding down of the electricity companies, Meridian in particular. The passive investment funds have been buying shares and pushing the prices up – and now their lack of activity has meant some stocks have regressed back to where they were," Ward said.

Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare staged a strong recovery, rising $1.44 or 4.53 per cent to $33.23m on impressive trade worth $80.5m. Medical consumable company Ebos Group climbed 70c or 2.75 per cent to $26.20 on trade worth $17.4m.

"Ebos was one of the large caps with good volume of trading and it's a name people have talked about for good news next year," said Ward.

There were also strong trading in a2 Milk, down 5c to $13.95 with $23.8m worth of shares changing hands; Auckland International Airport, losing 8c to $8.12 on $47.4m worth of shares; and Fletcher Building, up 1c to $5.76m on trade worth $17m.

Meridian said in its latest monthly operating report that retail sales in New Zealand in November were 11 per cent higher than the same month last year with increases in all segments, and its share price fell 28c or 4.06 per cent to $6.61. Mercury also fell 16c or 2.37 per cent to $6.59.

Air New Zealand, boosted by the opening of the Queensland border for transtasman travel, rose 5c or 2.7 per cent to $1.90. Marsden Maritime Holdings, owner of Northport which is taking on more container handling, climbed 19c or 3.26 per cent to $6.01.

Takeover target Infratil increased 4c to $7.20 on trade worth $11.6m; Skellerup Holdings reached a new high, rising 9c or 2.83 per cent to $3.27; and retirement village operators Summerset Group Holdings gained 28c or 2.6 per cent to $11.04, and Oceania Healthcare increased 4c or 3.03 per cent to $1.36.

Ward said fund managers were buying Infratil and covering their underweight positions. Infratil has a fragmented share register and the managers don't want to be hurt or underperform should a higher bid from AustralianSuper come through.

Briscoe Group surged 23c 5.02 per cent to $4.81 after announcing a special dividend and upbeat trading report. Briscoe is paying a fully-imputed dividend of 6c a share on January 20, to make up for the dividend cancelled in March. The bulk retailer said the Black Friday promotions produced record sales and the full-year profit was expected to be more than the $62.6m reported for the 12 months ending January 2020.

Radius Residential Care, which operates 22 aged care facilities and two retirement villages, found its debut price on the NZX at $1.75 on 118 trades worth $1m. Radius, founded in 2003, listed the day before with an offer price of 80c and there were no trades.

Precinct Properties reaffirmed in its quarterly update a forecast dividend of 6.5c a share for the 2021 financial year – an increase of 3.2 per cent on the past year. Its share price rose 5c or 2.94 per cent to $1.75. Property for Industry gained 6c or 2.09 per cent to $2.93.