It was a colourful Tuesday for New Zealand’s benchmark equities index today as Sky TV and Scott Technology shares shot up the leaderboard after it was leaked that Sky is on the hunt for a rumoured $500m buyout and Scott Technology signed a US$35m deal with a Canadian beef giant.

Turnover was $958 million today, with the S&P/NZX 50 index rising 162.8 points, or 1.5%, to 11,308.34. Within the broader equity market, 58 stocks fell and 89 rose. Turnover was very high due to the May Quarterly Index Review for the MSCI Equity Indices.

Winner winner, chicken dinner

Sky Television Network was one of the stronger performing stocks today after news of a potential $500m buyout hunt broke this morning.

The Australian Financial Review revealed that two private equity groups have been “encouraged” to look into a buyout of Sky TV in a deal worth over $500 million, as the company looks for more channel growth.

The company zipped up the leaderboard quicker than a Netflix subscription being shared among a flat of students and stayed up, ending the day up 8.5% at $2.68.

Automation and robotics company Scott Technology also had a strong day as it jumped 15.1% to $3.20 after the announcement it had signed a record US$35 million (NZ$53m) deal with a Canadian beef giant.

The deal – which Scott Technology is describing as its largest-ever project – is with beef processing company JBS Foods Canada for Scott to design and build a fully automated warehousing system for a plant in Brooks, Alberta, capable of handling 85,000 cartons.

Tech and energy stocks such as SmartPay and Vista also had a good run today, with SmartPay rising 6.6% to 73 cents and Vista also up 4.3% to $1.70.

Residential care company Radius Residential Care was up 2.7% to 38 cents, pushed by positive market winds after it reported its annual net profit had jumped by 52% to $2.6m yesterday.

Aged-care provider Promisia Healthcare also rose from $0.001 to $0.002 after it reported a net profit of $2.4m in the 12 months ended March 31.

But retirement village and rest home operator giant Ryman Healthcare was down 1.6% to $10.

Beans on toast

Software company Plexure had the biggest loss today after it reported a $24.1m net loss for the financial year ending March 31, and fell 14.9% to 20 cents.

Probiotic strains manufacturer Blis Technologies also had a big fall after it revealed its bottom line was squeezed by supply chain challenges amid the ongoing pandemic.

The company ended the day falling 12.8% to $0.034.

Telecommunications network provider Chorus also fell, dropping 0.3% to $7.13, along with carpet manufacturer Bremworth, which dropped 7.1% to 52 cents.

Australian petroleum company Ampol was down 0.9% to $36.90.

Australia and New Zealand Bank also fell 0.8% to $27.85 and infrastructure group Infratil dropped 1.3% to $7.74.

Make it make cents

Tina Teng, an analyst at CMC Markets, said in a note this morning that the US dollar had fallen further as bond yields continue to slide. 

She said commodity currencies – like the New Zealand, Australian and Canadian dollars – were on the rise as China starts to reopen its cities and traders see an uptick in demand.

The NZ dollar was trading at 65.40 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, down from 65.49 cents yesterday.