Market close: NZX withstands cyber attack, nears record high

The NZX finished the day just 38 points short of its record. Photo / File

The New Zealand stock exchange was the target of a persistent cyber attack but the market held its nerve on a day two of the heavyweights, Meridian and Spark, reported their latest financial results that had contrasting outcomes on the market.

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There was a late burst of trading and the S&P/NZX 50 Index, finishing at the day's high of 12,035.51, was just 38 points short of its record 12,073.34 achieved on February 21 this year.

The index gained 38.33 points or 0.32 per cent in that late flurry. It was as if there was pent-up demand after the NZX website went down twice and trading was halted for more than two and a half hours, resuming at 3pm. There were 72 gainers and 70 decliners over the whole market, and a very respectable 81.5m shares worth $249.35 million were traded.

Meridian Energy, the third biggest company on market capitalisation (outside dual-listed banks), reported record generation and retail sales growth in New Zealand, up 18 per cent, and in Australia, up 24 per cent, for the year ending June.

It announced an increased final dividend of 11.2c a share, paid on October 16, and its share price rose 8c or 1.56 per cent to $5.20 on trade worth $14.42m.

Meridian's revenue was steady at $3.405 billion, underlying profit was $317m ($333m last year) and net profit fell 48 per cent from $339m to $176m, reflecting higher depreciation on revalued assets and movements in forward prices.

Spark New Zealand, the fifth biggest market cap stock, reported a 2.5 per cent increase in revenue to $3.623b and 4.4 per cent rise in net profit to $427m for the year ending June. Mobile service revenue grew 3.9 per cent and cloud, security and service management income increased 10.8 per cent.

Spark is paying a final dividend of 12.5c a share on October 2 and its share price fell 18c or 3.58 per cent to $4.85 on trade worth $19.37m. Spark said "we expect the impact of Covid-19 to be more material in full-year 2021."

David Price, director institutional equities with Forsyth Barr, said there was initial disappointment that Spark's dividend outlook for 2021 was in the range of 23-25c a share – "that was a surprise to the market, though you are still talking a 6 per cent plus yield."

Agribusiness Scales Corporation slipped 7c to $4.88 after reporting a 43 per cent fall in continuing operations' net profit to $27.77m for the first six months ending June. Revenue was down 9 per cent to $253.29m, though Scales achieved record export volumes of Mr Apple. It is not paying an interim dividend.

Software company Pushpay Holdings fell 24c or 2.77 per cent to $8.43 after announcing interests associated with retiring chief executive Bruce Gordon had sold half of their Pushpay shares worth $12.4m.

Medicinal cannabis company Cannasouth continued its merry way, rising 16c or 16.16 per cent to $1.15 and having climbed from 56c over the past two weeks. The latest trade was worth $2.8m.

"Investors are speculating on the outcome of the cannabis referendum now that medicinal cannabis is already legal, and a lot of volume is coming into the share trading," said Jeremy Sullivan, investment adviser with Hamilton Hindin Greene.

Mercer Group, which is rebranding itself, was another strong mover, rising 6c or 18.75 per cent to 38c. There was heavy trading in Fletcher Building, down 5c to $3.37 with $29.49m shares changing hands; Z Energy was up 3c to $2.73 on trade worth $11.58m; and Ebos was up 2c to $22.42 on trade of $36.31m.