MARKET WRAP: NZ shares gain on A2 wins

New Zealand shares rose today as A2 Milk and Metro Performance Glass made gains and Fonterra stemmed its losses following its results announcement yesterday.

The NZX50 index rose 25 points to 8369.49, on turnover of $91 million.

A2 Milk jumped 42c to $10.66. The company will join the MSCI index next Thursday.

Metro Performance Glass went up 6c, or 7.3%, to 88c.

The Auckland-based company reported a 16% fall to $16.3 million in annual net profit but it was in line with April guidance.

The company says it hopes its refreshed strategy will boost performance and stock price.

“People have been waiting for a number of months to see if business has solidified, and the share price has been a big underperformer,” says Craigs Investment Partners senior investment adviser Nigel Scott.

“It’s another one of those stocks like Steel & Tube and Fletchers that has been in the too hard basket — the building sector in New Zealand.”

Fonterra's shares, which only farmers can own, fell nearly 7% after it announced an opening forecast farmgate milk price of $7/kg of milk solids for the 2018/19 season and it also raised the payout for the season finishing this month by 20c to $6.75. The shares were steady at $5.35 today while units in the Fonterra Shareholders' Fund, which anyone can own, fell 1c to $5.34.

When the price of milk goes up, that raises the cost of Fonterra's raw materials.

Shares in Comvita, still reeling on the back of canned talks with an overseas bidder, fell 13c to $5.80.

AFT Pharmaceuticals went down 10c to $2.40. Yesterday the company said it narrowed its operating loss to $12.7m for the year ended March 31, 2018, from $18.4m the previous year.

Online travel booking company Serko soared 10c, or 3.6%, to $2.84. Pushpay rose 9c to $4.18.

Over on the ASX, Xero was up 1.07% to $AU38.78 at 5pm NZST.

Meridian Energy climbed 4c to $3.06.

Mr Scott says there's renewed interest in Meridian shares following a positive sector report commissioned by national grid operator Transpower released this week.

The report forecast that electric vehicles will make up 85% of light vehicles by 2050 and more wind farms will be needed to meet demand for electricity.