KMD Brands posted the sharpest decline in the month as it shed almost half its value.
KMD Brands' Kathmandu store.
New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 index shrugged off surging oil prices as US President Donald Trump ratchets up the pressure on Iran, with the local market one of the best performers across Asia to almost unwind its decline through April.
KMD Brands posted the sharpest decline in the month as it shed almost half its value and A2 Milk Co tumbled 25%, while Skellerup Holdings, Genesis Energy, Napier Port Holdings and Vista Group International all notched up double-digit gains through April.
Stocks rallied across the board on Thursday, as ANZ’s monthly gauge of business confidence showed firms were nervous and wary of inflation, but not expecting to hike their own prices as sharply as they feared others would.
And T&G Global is carving itself up as controlling shareholder BayWa looks to exit its 14-year-old holding in the local fruit exporter.
The NZX50 jumped 133.01 points, or 1%, to 12,903.31, with 42 stocks gaining, five declining and three unchanged. Turnover across the main board was a hefty $271.2 million, of which Fisher & Paykel Healthcare accounted for $41.9 million as it rose 0.8% to $36.55 and Auckland International Airport accounted for $41.2 million, climbing 0.9% to $8.25.
The final-day surge narrowed its monthly decline to almost 0.1%, with retailer KMD at the bottom of the leaderboard as it shed 47% to end April at 6.2 cents, having turned to investors with a deeply discounted offering to shore up its balance sheet.
The A2 Milk Co dropped 25% to $8.67 having warned of softer profit this year than previously anticipated, with snarl-ups in its supply chain set to create shortfalls of Chinese-labelled products.
A 20% decline in Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund units to $6.55 in April didn’t adjust for the $2 per unit capital return from the sale of the cooperative’s Mainland consumer business.
Genesis Energy was the bigger gainer in the month, up 13% at $2.47, with Skellerup not far behind as it gained almost 13% to $5.87, while Vista and Napier Port both advanced about 11% to $1.88 and $3.70 respectively.
The Thursday rally came after ANZ’s latest monthly business outlook showed firms continued to fret about the economy and their own trading activity, with responses later in the month less worried than earlier ones. And while respondents anticipated inflation to accelerate, they didn’t expect to raise their own prices at the same pace.
“It looked like the peak fuel fears dissipated and we got the least bad outcome for the Reserve Bank in terms of inflation,” said Greg Smith, an investment specialist at Generate Investment Management. “The result helped the market a little bit” as it outperformed Asia.
Other markets across the region were relatively subdued as Brent crude oil futures with a June contract jumped 7.5% to US$125.50 a barrel at 5pm in Auckland amid reports US President Donald Trump was preparing for an extended blockade of Iran.
The kiwi dollar dropped to 58.32 US cents from 58.63 cents yesterday and the yield on the 10-year government bond rose 4 basis points to 4.74% after the Federal Reserve kept its federal funds rate unchanged in a divided vote, with some governors uneasy about keeping an easing bias in the commentary and one continuing to press for a cut.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index was down 0.5% in late trading and Japan’s Nikkei 225 sank 1.1%, with Singapore’s Straits Times Index one of the few gainers, up 0.5%.
“Equity markets are getting a little bit desensitised to the soundbite-driven nature of it all, but commodity markets haven’t,” Generate’s Smith said.
Locally, Kiwi Property Group led the NZX50 higher on Thursday, advancing 3.4% to 91.5 cents, while Genesis gained 3.4% and Investore Property rose 2.9% to $1.05.
The end-of-month trading was busy, with 19 of the top 50 stocks trading on volumes of more than 1 million shares, with SkyCity Entertainment Group the most heavily traded on a volume of 10.5 million shares, as it ended the day unchanged at 63.5 cents. The bulk of that was in a single trade of 10 million shares at 63 cents.
Air New Zealand posted the biggest decline on the day, falling 1.2% to 42.5 cents, while Fletcher Building slipped 0.7% to $2.79 and a2 Milk was down 0.6%.
Gentrack rose 1.6% to $6.03 after agreeing to buy airport technology firm Dubai Technology Partners for US$10 million, which is expected to make a marginal addition to earnings in the September financial year, before growing in 2027.
Outside the benchmark index, T&G Global was unchanged at $2.48 after the fruit exporter said it’s in talks to sell its New Zealand fresh produce and Fijian and Pacific businesses, keeping the apples and venture fruit arms here it sees the most opportunity for growth. Those remaining businesses are still up for sale as cornerstone shareholder BayWa looks to exit its holding.
Synlait Milk increased 1.2% to 42 cents after the milk processor said chief quality officer Hila Mory would leave the company at the end of July. Separately, it acknowledged shareholder Bright Dairy’s disclosure that Synlait’s losses had weighed on the Chinese group’s March quarter profit, saying the bulk of that was in January.
The S&P/NZX 20 index futures contract for June rose 1% to 7,300 with 17 lots traded and a value of almost $123,000. The NZX20 advanced 1.1% to 7,286.86.
Reporting by Paul McBeth.
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