Ryman Healthcare’s lift in its share price after a rough week was a movement of note on an otherwise quiet day of trading on the local sharemarket with the US closed for Thanksgiving.
Devon Funds head of retail Greg Smith said that markets had rallied over the past two days following the release of the minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting.
Smith said the meeting had shown that officials were open to “easing the pace” of rate hikes in the coming months as inflation moderates.
Today, the S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 60.9 points, or 0.54%, to 11,382.56. Turnover on the main board was a very light $90.4 million.
Aged care provider Ryman Healthcare has been having a bumpy time on the market this week after it revealed its first-half results last Friday.
But it rallied today with its share price up more than 6% by midday and at market close, was up 7% to $6.85 with over $4.3m traded.
Summerset Group also had a good day and rose 3.8% to $9.05.
Fleet company Eroad today reported its first half results for the six months ended Sep 30, with earnings before interest and tax jumping to $1m – up 150% from $400,000 in the previous corresponding period last year.
Eroad also appointed a new chief financial officer Margaret Warrington – who had been the company’s acting CFO since May of this year.
Today, the stock was down 1.7% to $1.18.
Jarden’s equity research vice president, Guy Hooper, said Eroad’s first half result appeared to be “in line” with expectations but called it a messy result with a “number of abnormal costs” and other non-cash items relating to the integration of Coretex and currency swings.
The Warehouse held its annual meeting today where the group’s executives had to defend their “miserable” treatment of shareholders and the company’s languishing share price.
One shareholder told The Warehouse board that they seemed to forget at times that shareholders were the owners of the business and he had “no hesitation” in saying that The Warehouse treated shareholders “the most miserably” of any of the large listed companies.
Today, The Warehouse edged up 1% to $2.97. Retailer KMD Brands fell 1.8% to $1.09. Briscoe Group also fell 2.4% to $4.98.
Healthcare manufacturer Fisher & Paykel was down 0.3% to $20.66.
Jarden senior analyst Adrian Allbon said it remained “too early” for Fisher & Paykel to provide FY23 guidance and the market was likely to remain “nervous” about when the recent downgrade cycle will end.
“Ongoing uncertainty factors continue to be customer inventory levels and the pace of clinical practice change, concerns that are partially balanced by the strong start to the Northern Hemisphere flu/RSV season, normalising freight rates and the potential for a China COVID outbreak, noting daily cases have recently accelerated,” he said.
Stocks that had a good day were Restaurant Brands up 5.5% to $6.86 and Sky Network Television up 2.7% to $2.30.
The NZ dollar was trading at 62.52 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, relatively unmoved from 62.50 cents yesterday ending the week up on the back of the Reserve Bank of NZ's interest rates hike and the US dollar's performance.
