NZX closes higher for third consecutive day, after strong run by Mainfreight
Friday, 31 July 2020
The New Zealand sharemarket closed higher for a third day on Friday, up 0.30 per cent, driven by strong performance by logistics company Mainfreight.
The NZX closed up 35 points at 11727.
Mainfreight’s share price closed up $3.30, or 7.57 per cent, at $46.90. Earlier in the day its share price hit an all-time high at $46.95, on the back of strong financial results from its Australian business.
At its annual general meeting on Thursday, Mainfreight announced its Australian division reported a 13 per cent increase in revenue to A$287.9m (NZ$308.9m) and 167 per cent increase on pre-tax profit to A$179m, in the 17 weeks ended July 26.
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In New Zealand, over that same period, Mainfreight reported a profit before tax of $167m on a revenue of $268.5m. Profit before tax was down 8 per cent, and revenue was up 1 per cent on the same time last year.
Mainfreight was valued at $4.72 billion.
In May, Mainfreight New Zealand’s net profit rose 4.9 percent in the year ended in March to $148 million.
Forsyth Barr institutional equities head David Price said Mainfreight’s strong revenue had investors and analysts feeling more upbeat.
“The market was pretty much driven by the strong performance of Mainfreight. They’ve had an absolute fantastic time and caused analysts to upgrade their forecast,” Price said.
Despite a strong run by the NZX in the latter half of the week, Price said the volumes being traded were very light.
“We’ll continue to tread water until we see get to reporting season.
“It was just some end-of-month window dressing, I wouldn’t read too much into it,” Price said.
The share price of A2 Milk fell 67c or 3.11 per cent to $20.84.
Among other top 10 stocks, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 45c to $36, Air New Zealand shares rose 1c to $1.34, Auckland International Airport rose 16c to $6.238 while Tourism Holdings rose 17c to $1.88.
Meridian rose 7c to $4.86 and Spark rose 1c, closing at $4.93.