The ANZ business confidence index increased 4 points to plus 58 in February, while expected own activity eased 1 point to plus 45. Past own activity fell 3 points to minus 3, and past employment was flat at minus 7.
ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner said activity indicators saw a mix of small rises and falls but overall continue to tell a tale of the economy recovering as interest rates fall.
“It seems clear from a wide range of indicators that the economy returned to positive growth in the last three months of last year. The improvement has been broad-based,” Zollner said.
In the United States, chipmaker Nvidia reported a strong quarterly result and provided a boost to the artificial intelligence (AI) and data centre sector.
Nvidia increased 3.67% to US$131.28 ($231.33) with sales rising 78% to US$39.33 billion, driven by AI demand, and net income increasing to $US22.09b, up $US10b from a year ago. Data centre business now comprises 91% of Nvidia’s total sales, and has risen tenfold in the past two years.
One of the beneficiaries at home is CDC data centre majority shareholder Infratil, which increased 38c or 3.62% to $10.88 on trade worth $27.56m.
Infratil chief executive Jason Boyes showed confidence in the future by spending $5m to buy 476,190 shares on-market at $10.50 a share. Boyes now holds nearly 1.9 million shares in Infratil.
Mainfreight recovered a further $1.25 or 1.83% to $69.64; Gentrack gained 20c or 1.79% to $11.40; Millennium & Copthorne Hotels NZ was up 11c or 4.4% to $2.61; Vital Healthcare Trust collected 5.5c or 3.07% to $1.845; and a2 Milk increased 21c or 2.38% to $9.02.
Solly said looking back, a2 Milk will have provided the standout result during the reporting season, and investment money continues to flow into the stock.
Freightways gained 12c to $11.12; Vector was up 12c or 3.05% to $4.05; Sky TV improved 5c or 2.04% to $2.50; Tourism Holdings increased 8c or 4.6% to $1.82; Delegat Group added 10c or 2.08% to $4.90; and Bremworth rose 4c or 7.27% to 59c.
SkyCity was up 3c or 2.29% to $12.34; Vista Group gained 7c or 2.13% to $3.35; and KMD Brands collected 1.5c or 3.85% to 40.5c.
Seeka rose 24c or 7.36% to $3.50 after reporting a 36.7% increase in revenue to $411.41m for the 12 months ending December and turning the previous year’s loss into a net profit of $8.75m.
The kiwifruit grower and packer said the $110m revenue increase was driven by higher volumes handled in New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand’s volume increased 44% to 43 million class one trays, and Seeka’s Australian orchards increased production by 116%.
Summerset Group was down 15c to $11.70 on the eve of reporting its latest financial result; Meridian Energy decreased 6.5c to $5.72; PGG Wrightson declined 9c or 4.11% to $2.10; NZME shed 4c or 3.33% to $1.16; and AFT Pharmaceuticals was down 5c or 1.82% to $2.20.
Heartland Group, which is restructuring its business, was down 2c or 2.22% to 88c after reporting an 8.4% in revenue to $155.13m and a 90.4% fall in net profit to $3.6m for the six months ending December. It is paying an interim dividend of 2c a share on March 21.
Heartland Bank was weighed down by $50m impairment expenses and net interest margin decreased 26 basis points to 3.1% but is expected to increase to more than 4%. Australian reverse mortgages achieved record new business of $193m, up 4.1%.
Restaurant Brands fell 23c or 6.01% to $3.60 despite a solid full-year result. Revenue was up 5.7% to $1.474b and net profit increased 63.1% to $26.53m. There were record store sales of $1.393b.
Channel Infrastructure was down 2c to $1.94 after reporting a 7% increase in revenue to $139.8m and a 6% decline in net profit to $25.95m for the 12 months ending December. It is paying a final dividend of 6.6c a share on March 27.
