Vista shone in a flurry of earnings in February’s last trading.
New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 index marked its best month since September as earnings largely delivered the expected revival in the domestic economy, with exporters such as A2 Milk Co and Skellerup Holdings among those leading the charge, while travel software Serko bore the brunt of the global cooling on tech companies.
Vista Group International had its best day in a year after the cinema software returned to profit and marked a record revenue in a busy earnings day to end the month, including results from Port of Tauranga, Channel Infrastructure and Summerset Group Holdings.
Nasdaq-listed Rocket Lab dropped in after-hours trading after again delaying the launch of its Neutron rocket until the last three months of this year, after reporting record quarterly earnings and forecast more growth in the current period.
And Hallenstein Glasson Holdings advanced after giving a strong trading update, while ANZ’s latest consumer confidence survey showed households dialled back their optimism about the economy in February.
The NZX50 rose 52.26 points, or 0.4%, to 13,722.97, with 26 stocks gaining, 19 declining and five unchanged.
That took the monthly gain to 2.2%, the benchmark’s best since September, as earnings came to a close with a flood of companies reporting in what’s been a relatively solid season, reflecting the burgeoning signs of an economic recovery.
“We’ve got a two-paced economy – the housing market and the rest of us,” said Peter McIntyre, an investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.
The A2 Milk Co was one of the stars in earnings season as it grabbed more of China’s infant formula market share, with the exporter’s shares up 17% in February to close at $11.55, while Skellerup Holdings climbed 12% in the month to $5.81 and Auckland International Airport gained 11% to $9.16. The dual-listed banks were also among the month’s leaders, with ANZ Group Holdings gaining 11% to end February at $47.37 and Westpac Banking Corp rising 12% to $50.72.
Serko was the worst performer in February as it fell 32% to $2.02 in the month as software companies were punished by increasingly nervous investors about the threat posed by the artificial intelligence to their business models.
Nvidia’s better-than-expected quarterly result this week didn’t inspire confidence among investors, with the chipmaker sold off overnight and prompting a soft day for Wall Street. Futures are pointing to another weak start, with the S&P 500 futures down 0.3%.
Craigs’ McIntyre said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Nvidia rebound tonight or early next week once that initial negative sentiment subsides.
Meanwhile, Sharesies favourite Rocket Lab fell 4.3% to US$69.50 in after-hours trading in the US, having rallied ahead of its quarterly result when the company further delayed the launch of its mid-sized Neutron rocket, while forecasting another record revenue quarter.
Back in New Zealand, turnover across the NZX’s main board on Friday was $352.1 million in an extended trading session ahead of the quarterly index review for MSCI equity indices.
Of that, Auckland International Airport accounted for $71.8 million as it rose 0.6% on the day, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare slipped 0.2% to $40.90 on a turnover of $64.5m, while Meridian Energy advanced 1.8% to $5.66 on a turnover of $40.8m and Contact Energy declined 0.6% to $9.29 on a value of $40.5m.
Vista led gainers on the NZX50 on Friday, jumping 11% to $1.89 in its best trading day since Feb 28 last year after the cinema analytics firm returned to profit in 2025, with revenue up 10% at a record $164.3m. Separately, Paramount Skydance won the bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery after Netflix dropped out, removing the threat of the streaming giant shrinking the global box office.
Among other companies reporting on Friday, Port of Tauranga rose 1.9% to $8.05 after reporting a 17% increase in first-half profit and raised its forecast for the annual result.
Channel Infrastructure fell 1% to $2.88 after reporting a 2% dip in annual earnings, while Summerset slipped 0.5% to $10.66 on its 13% increase in underlying profit.
Michael Sherrock, head of NZ equities for Amova, said Channel continued to deliver on expectations.
“The higher-than-anticipated final dividend reflects good cash generation, while Air NZ’s addition to the biorefinery consortium shows continued progress towards the final investment decision getting the green light,” Sherrock said in a note.
Hallenstein Glasson Holdings rose 3.4% to $10.10 after saying first-half sales rose 15%.
Separately, ANZ’s latest consumer confidence index unwound most of January’s spike, falling 7.1 points to 100.1 while respondents no longer think it’s a good time to buy a big-ticket item, with a net 4% saying it’s a bad time to do so.
The kiwi dollar traded at 59.89 US cents at 5pm in Auckland from 60.01 cents yesterday.
Reporting by Paul McBeth.
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