“The local market has done alright,” Solly said. “Port of Tauranga had a reasonably robust first quarter with a solid profit guidance showing an increase of 8-18%.”
The port company was up 3c to $5.95 after reporting total trade volumes were up 7.6% to 6.2m tonnes, and container volumes increased 16% to 293,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) compared with the same September quarter last year.
Full-year earnings were upgraded to $110m-$120m compared with group profit of $102.7m in the previous year.
Port of Tauranga told shareholders at the annual meeting that it will introduce electric automated stacking cranes when it is constructing the new berth at the container terminal to increase capacity and help decarbonisation.
After three months of improvement, the October ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index declined four points to 91.2, with a net 14% of respondents expecting to be better off this time next year – a fall of 11 points. Perceptions of current personal financial situations fell six points to minus 22%.
ANZ said the good news for households is the Reserve Bank has accelerated the pace of easing and is likely to deliver another 50-basis-points cut in the Official Cash Rate by the end of year, bringing relief a little closer.
The inflation challenges of the past few years that have battered consumer confidence are drawing to a close. That adjustment hasn’t been without cost, and those costs will continue to be felt into next year, but brighter times do lie ahead, ANZ said.
Westpac produced new forecasts for the next year with gross domestic product at 2.3% growth, inflation 2%, OCR 3.5% and house prices increasing 8.2%.
Fisher and Paykel Healthcare eased 26c to $36.84; Mercury Energy was down 8.5c to $6.61; a2 Milk declined 17c or 2.6% to $6.36; Chorus decreased 20c or 2.33% to $8.78; Tower shed 4.5c or 3.35% to $1.30; and Vista Group was down 7c or 2.36% to $2.90
Ventia Services fell 27c or 5.08% to $5.05; Scott Technology was down 4c or 2.12% to $1.85; Comvita shed 4c or 3.39% to $1.14; and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels NZ decreased 7c or 3.95% to $1.10. Vulcan Steel was down a further 20c or 2.41% to $8.10.
Ebos Group increased 45c to $37.35; Mainfreight was up 74c to $72.75; Spark gained 3.5c to $2.995; Michael Hill added 3c or 5% to 63c; Scales Corp collected 10c or 2.6% to $3.94; and Santana Minerals was up 4.33c or 5.65% to 81c following its share split.
NZ Windfarms increased 1.2c or 9.68% to 13.6c after buying the 8.65MW Wairarapa Hau Nui wind farm from Genesis Energy. Five of the 15 turbines are not currently operating but will be refurbished.
The company upgraded its full-year operating earnings (ebitdaf) guidance to $4.5m-$6m, from $3m-$5.5m, because of extra generation from the existing Te Rere Hau wind farm near Palmerston North.
Blackpearl Group was up 5c or 3.85% to $1.35 after earlier telling the market that its $2m share purchase plan offer at $1.25 a share closed oversubscribed, following the placement of $10.5m.
