Rubber goods manufacturer Skellerup and building materials and construction services company Fletcher Building pulled New Zealand’s market up by its bootstraps today.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 144.2 points, or 1.3%, to 11,046.50. Turnover was just $87.3 million.
Chief executive Ross Taylor told shareholders at Fletcher’s annual meeting this morning that the company expects earnings before interest and tax (Ebit) to be $855 million – or higher – in 2023.
The guidance wasn’t quite enough to satisfy shareholders, who wanted to know why Fletcher’s positive performance wasn’t being reflected in the share price.
Fletcher’s shares ended the day up 3.1% to $5.05.
Grant Davies of Hamilton Hindin Greene said that until there was more clarity on where the housing and construction sector was going, there wasn’t much Fletcher could do to push the share price higher, apart from continuing to plug away with its results.
Cinema technology company Vista Group fell 1.3% to $1.57.
The company announced it was planning to target growing annual recurring revenue through its new software-as-a-service platform which would garner more than $300m for the firm in the long term.
Restaurant Brands announced that its September quarter sales soared 32%, as the company continues to recover from covid-19.
The shares were up 2.1% to $7.40 today.
Sales ticked up to $907.1m in the year to date, which was a jump of 15.7% on the year before. This was supported by the inclusion of 20 new stores, lower levels of covid-19 disruption and the strengthening US and Australian dollars against the NZ dollar.
Davies said it was going to take the winter period to see if the company could keep its margins maintained.
“It’s been a bit of a tough year for Restaurant Brands,” he told BusinessDesk.
Rubber manufacturer Skellerup jumped 3.7% to $5.30 after its annual meeting today, on the news that the company expected net profit of $48m to $52m in the year ending June 30, 2023 – which would beat the record $47.8m posted for the 2022 June year.
On the currency front, the NZ dollar was trading at 57.31 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, up from 57.11 cents yesterday.
ASB’s Mark Smith said this morning that Rishi Sunak being confirmed as new UK prime minister saw markets breathing “a collective sigh of relief”.
Does this mean the UK economy is on the route to recovery after the last few weeks of frantic politicking? Not quite.
Smith said inflation and a looming recession were still on the cards – but the election of Sunak would give markets more breathing space.
