Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said the arbitrage (hedge) funds will be holding millions of Pushpay shares and they will be stuck in their position, hoping a higher bid can be generated.
“Most of the funds would have bought in after the bid was announced and they now have a decision of whether to stay in. There are wide views on Pushpay’s fundamental fair value and the stock has traded between 90c and $1.45 over the past 12-18 months,” he said.
David McConnochie, investment adviser with Forsyth Barr, said the local market started the week with no real direction and didn’t take up leads from strong markets in Australia and the US.
“There was a lot of index reweighting happening last week and the local market just had a quiet day,” he said.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 0.6 per cent at 7327 points at 6pm NZ time.
Wall Street finished its week with two strong trading days. Over that time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 2.22 per cent to 33,390.97 points; S&P 500 was up 2.37 per cent to 4045.64; and Nasdaq Composite rose 2.7 per cent to 11,689.01.
At home, transtasman healthcare and animal care products distributor Ebos Group climbed $1.24 or 2.85 per cent to $44.74m after announcing it will be added to the S&P/ASX 300 Index on March 20.
In the ASX All Ordinaries Index, Air New Zealand, Infratil, NZME, Synlait Milk, Smartpay Holdings and Tourism Holdings will be added and Eroad removed.
Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare added further support to the market, rising 44c to $26.49.
Chorus was up 7c to $8.13; Skellerup Holdings increased 6c to $5.14; Summerset Group added 11c to $9.12; Synlait Milk collected 5c to $3.26; Michael Hill gained 3c or 2.73 per cent to $1.13; and Tower was up 1c to 62c.
Napier Port rebounded 9c or 3.32 per cent to $2.80; South Port NZ climbed 15c or 1.94 per cent to $7.90; and Port of Tauranga was down 6c to $6.20.
Leading banks ANZ increased 44c to $26.40 and Westpac gained 27c to $24.02 on the back of a strong day in Australia.
Transport technology firm Eroad was up 1c to 79c after telling the market it has reduced annual operating costs by $10m and will be announcing further cost-cutting initiatives, worth another $10m, at an investor day on March 21.
It was the day for green bonds. Meridian Energy, gaining 2c to $5.385, has launched a $150m five-and-a-half-year green bond with the ability to accept up to $50m over-subscriptions.
Kiwi Property was down 0.005c to 91.5c after telling the market that its $3.2b mixed-use portfolio will be devalued 4.1 per cent or $134.7m for the six months ended March.
Kiwi is maintaining 100 per cent occupancy with second-half sales growth and rental uplift, and is next week launching a $100m six-and-a-half-year green bond.
Genesis Energy was down 4c to $2.855; Vector declined 5c to $3.94; Vista Group decreased 4c or 2.74 per cent to $1.42; Rakon fell 5c or 5.21 per cent to 91c; and Vulcan Steel had one of its biggest single-day falls, down 50c or 5.36 per cent to $8.82.
Bremworth shed 3c or 6.98 per cent to 40c; CDL Investments declined 3c or 3.95 per cent to 73c; and Geneva Finance was down 2c or 4.55 per cent to 42c.
Transport and logistics software firm TradeWindow drifted a further 2.5c or 7.04 per cent to 33c after earlier announcing it raised just $5.4m in a $20m share offer. TradeWindow reached a high of $2.02 on March 18 last year and has fallen 88.5 per cent in the last 12 months.
Global kiwifruit distributor and marketer Zespri, with a $4b business, has indicated it will list on the NZX later this year, with only growers owning shares. Zespri has forecast net profit for the year ending March in the range of $217m-$227m, significantly down on the previous year’s profit of $361.5m.
