Market close: NZ shares take late dive

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The New Zealand sharemarket took a late half per cent dive on global investment manager BlackRock's rebalancing of its stocks. But four leading companies that were earlier hit had nice bounce-backs.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index, taking a breather from a flurry of company financial results this week, traded flat most of the day before falling 61.08 points or 0.5 per cent to 12,182.25 in the last half hour of the adjust session.

There were 88 gainers and 57 decliners over the whole market on light volume of 26.9 million share transactions worth $105.27 million.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said investors have "a bit of digesting to do over the company results. By and large the results have been okay, but it's their outlook statements that have been clouded and made investors cautious.

"It's been an exciting market reacting to news flow, and the latest reporting season means people will have to refresh their earnings forecasts. This might be as good as it gets for a little while we see what happens with (economic) growth. Even the Reserve Bank is starting to take the punch out of the party," Solly said.

The local market has fallen 10 per cent since the January 8 all-time high of 13,558.19 but it is still more than 12 per cent ahead for the past 12 months.

Making the bounce-backs were retirement village operators Ryman Healthcare, up 24c or 1.87 per cent to $13.06, and Summerset Group Holdings gaining 29c or 2.39 per cent to $12.40.

Auckland International Airport, facing unfounded fears of the transtasman travel bubble bursting, recovered 29c or 4.14 per cent to $7.30; and a2 Milk increased 18c or 3.16 per cent to $5.88.

Airport software firm Gentrack, reporting signs of growth, rose 13c or 6.91 per cent to $2.01; Tourism Holdings climbed 8c or 3.31 per cent to $2.50; AMP gained 5c or 4.17 per cent to $1.25; and Turners Automotive Group increased 5c to $4.19. Fonterra Shareholders' Fund was up another 7c to $4; and Sanford increased 8c to $4.73.

Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, one of the stocks that provided a confusing outlook, fell 49c to $29.21; Freightways was down 45c or 3.75 per cent to $11.54; Mercury Energy declined 40c or 5.76 per cent to $6.54; Pushpay Holdings shed 5c or 2.86 per cent to $1.70; and Goodman Property Trust decreased 6c or 263 per cent to $2.20.

It was a day for small cap annual results to the end of March. Transportation technology firm EROAD rose 15c or 2.77 per cent to $5.56 after posting a 93 per cent gain in net profit to $2.01m on revenue of $91.63m, up 13 per cent. EROAD's contracted dashcam units increased 9715 over the past year.

Green Cross Health, which owns Unichem and Life Pharmacy, gained 3c or 2.86 per cent to $1.08 with increased net profit of $21.03m, from $16.95m on steady revenue of $570.4m for the March year. The pharmacy revenue declined 6 per cent but medical was up 7 per cent and community health and increased 10 per cent.

Aged care operator Radius Residential Care reported its first annual result as a listed company, showing net profit at $1.7m and revenue up 10.8 per cent to $126.04m. Radius now has 22 aged care facilities with more than 1700 beds and two retirement villages with 176 units. It is paying a final dividend of 0.89c a share on June 21 and its share price was unchanged at 91c.

New Zealand Automotive Investments, which owns Cheap Cars, had a 13.4 per cent drop in revenue to $66.1m and a fall in net profit to $3.2m, from $4.2m, and it is paying a final dividend of 5c a share on June 17. Electric and hybrid vehicle sales almost doubled in the past year, and its share price was unchanged at $1.07.

Hospitality group Savor's revenue fell 33 per cent to $16.13m, and the loss lengthened to $6.58m, from the previous $4.04m. It has $7m cash on hand and its share price was unchanged at 20.5c.

Eftpos provider Smartpay Holdings reported a 19.7 per cent increase in revenue to $338m and recorded a loss of $15.2m after making an adjustment to its existing convertible notes. The Australian revenue grew 17.1 per cent, an 80 per cent rise from the previous period, and its share price slipped 1c to 79c.

DGL Group, which manufactures, transports, stores and processes chemicals and hazardous waste, rose 6c or 4.48 per cent to $1.40 after listing on Monday at $1. DGL has more than 1300 customers on each side of the Tasman, and has forecast revenue of $209.7m for the 2022 financial year and operating earnings (ebitda) of 29m, up from $19.2m in 2020.