Sharemarket bounces back as dividends attract investors

Spark New Zealand gained 1.6 per cent to $3.89. Photo / Greg Bowker

New Zealand shares have made good gains after yesterday's selling, with Metro Performance Glass leading the index up while Contact Energy went ex-dividend.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 36.86 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 7775.2. Within the index, 33 stocks rose, 11 fell and six were unchanged. Turnover was $122 million.

"The market has rebounded a little after yesterday's risk-off-the-table event with North Korea, we've seen it gradually get stronger during the day," said Peter McIntyre, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.

"It's a market that is quite fully valued and reliant on earnings continuing to hold values up. A number of stocks are trading cum dividend, we're going to get days when geopolitical tensions override everything and a flight to safety into cash or gold.

"We have got a lot of companies set to pay reasonable dividends, and that attracts a lot of investors, so I think that's going to support the market."

Metro Performance Glass was the best performer, rising 3.8 per cent to $1.09. It had been sold down heavily since its result.

"It does reach a position where investors see some value in it, or see it as being oversold," McIntyre said. "It's not like Metro Glass hasn't got a bit of work in front of it, it's a wee bit like Fletcher Building, investors do see some value in it."

Spark New Zealand gained 1.6 per cent to $3.89. The telco benefited from today's broadband announcement, as its joint bid with Vodafone and 2degrees was awarded the $150m tender to extend rural broadband and provide mobile coverage for black spots in locations favoured by tourists and along the state highway network.

Chorus was unchanged at $4.05. It said it would deliver ultrafast broadband to 87 per cent of the country by 2022, two years ahead of schedule, and expand its fibre rollout to 54,500 "rural premises" with a total cost of $130m from a deal with Crown Fibre Holdings. About 60 per cent of the country currently have access to fibre, the government says.

The deal will increase Chorus' peak leverage in the medium term, so it will fully underwrite its final dividend for the 2017 financial year, while it hasn't changed its 2018 guidance. Crown Fibre Holdings is funding the programme through $240m in recycled capital from earlier stages of the UFB programme and $30m from the telecommunications development levy.

Contact Energy closed at $5.45 after going ex-dividend of 15c, while Ebos Group dropped 1.3 per cent to $17.07.

Outside the benchmark index, Allied Farmers dropped 6.4 per cent to 8.8c. The rural services firm reported a 60 per cent lift in net profit to $2.2m on an improved result from its livestock division, and further cost reduction.

Pyne Gould Corp was unchanged at 24c. The financial services firm, controlled by managing director George Kerr, turned to an annual loss due to the GBP20.54m cost of its Supreme Court-ordered payout to Wilaci Pty.