Jeremy Sullivan, investment adviser with Hamilton Hindin Greene, said the Reserve Bank update was more hawkish than the market expected after some soft economic data recently.
“With the bank lifting the OCR peak, this implies there is a potential for a rise but I don’t think that will happen. The bank was jawboning the market not to get ahead of itself over rate cuts,” Sullivan said.
The Reserve Bank lifted the peak OCR to 5.65 per cent, from 5.6 per cent, and forecast inflation to reach 2 per cent in mid-2026, six months later than previously thought. ANZ Bank predicts the first interest rate cut will come in May next year.
The NZ dollar rallied nearly half a cent against the American greenback, trading at US61.27c from the day’s low of 60.88c.
Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was up 26c to $28.62; Auckland International Airport increased 19c or 2.56 per cent to $7.61; Infratil gained 13c to $10.83; a2 Milk added 15c or 2.03 per cent to $7.54; Contact Energy improved 12c to $8.92; and SkyCity was up a further 8c or 4.55 per cent to $1.84.
Comvita rebounded 10c or 5.71 per cent to $1.85; Vulcan Steel rose 33c or 4.4 per cent to $7.83; Winton Land was up 6c or 3.05 per cent to $2.03; Tourism Holdings improved 5c or 2.73 per cent to $1.88; Hallenstein Glasson added 11c or 2.04 per cent to $5.50; and Michael Hill improved 2c or 3.85 per cent to 54c.
Napier Port rose 15c or 6.38 per cent to $2.50 after reporting an improved six months to March with revenue increasing 10.1 per cent to $70.58m on the back of significant growth in export logs and cruise ship visits.
Net profit was up 64.8 per cent to $14.32m and the port company is paying an interim dividend of 3c a share on June 27. Expected full-year operating earnings are $50m-$53m.
Container revenue declined 7.8 per cent to $33.6m on a 17.3 per call fall in volumes to 98,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units). Bulk cargo revenue was up 27.1 per cent to $26.2m on 1.88m tonnes with log volumes lifting 35.7 per cent to 1.55m tonnes. Cruise ship visits increased from 62 to 88.
Mercury Energy declined 18c or 2.75 per cent to $6.37; Ryman Healthcare slipped 13c or 3.31 per cent to $3.80; Scales Corp was down 14c or 4.13 per cent to $3.25; and Delegat Group fell 13c or 2.52 per cent to an eight-year low of $5.03.
Air New Zealand eased 1c or 1.85 per cent to 52.5c; Arvida Group declined 2c or 2 per cent to 98c; Rakon was down 4c or 4.35 per cent to 88c; and Colonial Motor Co decreased 15c or 1.88 per cent to $7.85.
Genesis Energy declined 7c or 3.06 per cent to $2.215 after telling the market that the intervention campaign at Kupe KS-9 was unsuccessful in improving well performance.
The lower-than-expected production is expected to reduce Genesis’ full-year operating earnings (ebitdaf) by $15m-$20m. Its previous guidance was $430m.
NZ Oil & Gas, which has a 4 per cent interest in the Kupe field, was down 1c or 2.47 per cent to 39.5c. NZOG told the market it is delisting from the NZX on June 24 and concentrating on the Australian ASX which has a larger capital and investor base.
Argosy Property, which owns 50 buildings, was down 4.5c or 4.02 per cent to $1.075 after reporting a 3.3 per cent increase in full-year revenue to $116.5m and net loss of $55.3m resulting from a $111.7m reduction in the value of its industrial, office and large format retail portfolio.
Argosy’s net tangible assets fell to $1.45 a share, from $1.58, and with 96.7 per cent occupancy it achieved 3.5 per cent in rental growth on rents reviewed.
Just Life, unchanged at 19.1c, is delisting from the NZX on June 11 and transferring to the Unlisted Securities Exchange.
