Market close: Energy stocks hike up NZ's market

The index rose more than half a per cent. Photo / NZME

A lolly mixture of earnings results – ranging from petroleum, telecommunications and property – were released today but it was energy stocks that helped pull New Zealand's market higher at the close.

The S&P/NZX 50 index rose 79.1 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 11,763.95. Turnover on the main board was light again at $97.6 million.

Jarden wealth management director Greg Main said last week the market had been buoyed along by competing data but this week would be more focused on the outpouring of earnings that many listed companies are gearing up to release.

"We'll just be treading water and looking at what the company results are," he told BusinessDesk.

Almost all energy stocks were up today, which helped push the index into positive territory by early evening. Meridian Energy was up 1.6 per cent to $5.34, Genesis Energy climbed 0.9 per cent to $2.98 and Mercury NZ rose 1.1 per cent to $6.35. Contact Energy was up earlier in the day but ended the evening down 0.1 per cent to $7.85.

Meridian releases its full-year earnings later this week while Contact and Mercury already released good results to the market last week.

Manawa Energy shares were flat at $6.25 per share. The energy retailer told the NZX today that its board had appointed big four accounting firm KPMG as its external auditor for the financial year ending March 31 2023.

Transtasman express package company Freightways released its full-year earnings to June 30 today, announcing it had acquired Australian courier business Allied Express for A$160m in cash and shares.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation was up 1 per cent to $130.2m. Revenue was up 9.1 per cent to $873.1m. Freightways was up 1.6 per cent to $9.55 by the end of the day.

Telecommunication company Chorus also declared its half-year earnings today, telling the market that net profit had risen to $64m in the 12 months ended June 30 from the restated $51m the year prior – a 25.5 per cent increase.

The telecommunications infrastructure provider has crossed the threshold of earning more than it invests in the network, leaving it with more cash to return to shareholders. The company's shares were up 2.2 per cent to $7.98.

Fuel conglomerate Ampol was up slightly by 1 cent to $37.51 after a large boost in profit was boosted by A$969m ($1.07 billion) of revenue from Z Energy in its first two months of owning the NZ retailer. As a comparison, Z Energy earned $5b revenue in the 12 months ended March 31 2022.

Cinema software provider Vista was down 4 per cent to $1.88 after telling shareholders that the fragile position of its customer, cinema chain Cineworld, didn't reflect the status of the wider cinema industry.

Vista said it was "public information that Cineworld has a significant debt burden" but the NZ firm understood that the current situation was "specific to Cineworld" and didn't reflect the wider industry.

Industrial property developer Property for Industry (PFI) reported a 91 per cent slide in first-half profit to $23.8m, down from a net profit of $273.5m for the comparable period to June 2021. The company shares were up 1 per cent to $2.62.

Mobile phone marketing software developer Plexure was up 6 per cent to 44 cents after it announced to the market it will shift its primary listing to the Australian stock exchange and be renamed Task Group Holdings, completing a reverse takeover that began last August.

Steel & Tube nearly doubled its annual net profit as it fattened margins amid volatile prices and as it reaped the benefits of five years of restructuring. Its shares rose 6.2 per cent to $1.55 by the end of the day. The steel products distributor reported a net profit of $30.2m for the year ended June, up from $15.4m the previous year.

On the currency front, the NZ dollar was sitting at 61.84 US cents at 3pm today, down from 62.31 US cents yesterday.

- BusinessDesk