NZX led higher by Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and A2

Wednesday, 29 July 2020

The New Zealand stock exchange closed up 0.18 per cent on a strong day for Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and A2.

The NZX50 closed up 21 points at 11,599.44 on Wednesday.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare shares rose 1.89 per cent or 66 cents to $35.51, while A2 was up 0.92 per cent or 19c at $20.94.

Forsyth Barr institutional equities director David Price said the sharmarket’s performance was largely driven by the performance of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and A2, which made up about 30 per cent of the market.

* NZX closes lower as investors wait for financial reporting to begin

* Fisher & Paykel Healthcare becomes first NZ company to value $20 billion

The New Zealand stock exchange closed up 0.18 per cent following “strong” gains from Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and A2.

“When they have good days, and the both had strong days today, they offset quite a lot of the other stocks that had weak days,” Price said.

Wednesday was a recovery days from Tuesday’s losses for both companies, he said.

“Yesterday Fisher & Paykel Healthcare had quite a hard time digesting a large line that was traded. It’s digested that and had a wee bounce. But there wasn’t anything specific per se.”

He said the New Zealand market would be impacted by Wall Street as major United States companies announced their financial results this week and Kiwi investors were holding out till next month when the New Zealand financial reporting season began.

Among other top 10 stocks, Air New Zealand shares rose 5c to $1.325, Auckland International Airport was up 8c to $6.28 while Tourism Holdings fell 2c to $1.70.

Restaurant Brands’ the owner of fast food chains KFC and Taco Bellannounced its sales for the three months to June 30 of $183.3 million, down $22.6m, or 11 per cent, on the same time last year primarily due to the closure of the New Zealand stores for most of April as a result of the Covid -19 lockdown.

Restaurant Brands share price ended the day down 5c at $12.15.