{"id":288608,"date":"2026-02-17T18:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/288608\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T18:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:10:13","slug":"nz-sharemarket-down-0-6-despite-strong-earnings-market-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/288608\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ sharemarket down 0.6% despite strong earnings – Market close"},"content":{"rendered":"

The market was weighed down by Contact\u2019s $525m capital raise to help fund renewable energy projects, and a slump in the property sector as the housing market remains soft.<\/p>\n

Greg Smith, investment specialist with Generate, said, \u201cWe saw selling in other energy stocks to fund the Contact raise, which is at quite a discount.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe latest REINZ data shows the housing market is as soggy as the weather, and it remains to be seen when and if it joins the broader economic recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith said the recovery is \u201cpretty uneven \u2013 card spending was down 1.1% in January, back to the level in September. Consumers are still in a very selective place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freightways was up 9c to $14.61 after reporting a strong half-year result<\/a> with revenue increasing 8.5% to $718.15m and net profit rising 17.2% to $52.46m. Operating earnings (ebitda) were up 12.2% to $96.5m.<\/p>\n

The express delivery company, a bellwether stock for the New Zealand economy, is paying an interim dividend of 21c per share on April 1, an increase of 10.5%.<\/p>\n

Freightways said, \u201cWe expect a steady improvement in same-customer volumes in the second half of the 2026 financial year, particularly in New Zealand, driven by a level of economic recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Global infant milk supplier a2 Milk was one of the day\u2019s biggest movers, gaining 50c or 5% to $10.50 after reporting an 18.8% rise in revenue<\/a> to $993.49m and 9.4% increase in net profit to $112.3m for the six months ending December. The share price hit an intraday high of $11.17.<\/p>\n

It is paying an interim dividend of 11.5c a share on April 2.<\/p>\n

A2 Milk\u2019s revenue grew 13.6% in its main market of China, with the China label infant milk formula achieving record market share.<\/p>\n

The company upgraded its full-year revenue growth guidance from low double-digit to mid double-digit per cent with improved operating earnings (ebitda) margin. A2 Milk said it is on track to achieve the $2b sales ambition this financial year \u2013 12 months ahead of the plan.<\/p>\n

Contact Energy, last traded at $9.59, reported a 43.9% increase in half-year net profit <\/a>to $204.95m and 5.3% fall in revenue to $1.617 billion. It is paying an interim dividend of 16c a share on March 25.<\/p>\n

However, Contact entered a trading halt before announcing the capital raise and development plans. Contact has also made an offer to buy the remaining 24.98% of King Country Energy for $47m.<\/p>\n

Other stocks<\/p>\n

Fellow energy stock Meridian was down 18c or 3.13% to $5.58, and Mercury declined 9c to $6.24.<\/p>\n

The property sector on the NZX fell more than 2%. Argosy was down 3.5c or 2.94% to $1.15; Goodman Trust declined 5.5c or 2.87% to $1.86; and Investore shed 2.5c or 2.24% to $1.09.<\/p>\n

Vital Healthcare Trust declined 5.5c or 2.76% to $1.94; Precinct Properties was down 3c or 2.59% to $1.13; and Stride eased 2c to $1.25.<\/p>\n

Property for Industry, down 5c or 2.19% to $2.23, has sold two properties in New Plymouth and Christchurch for a combined total of $19.05m, representing a 1.06% increase on the most recent valuations.<\/p>\n

Fletcher Building was down 9c or 2.48% to $3.54; Summerset declined 18c to $10.67; and Ryman Healthcare fell 14c or 5.36% to $2.47 \u2013 stocks that are also affected by the health of the housing market.<\/p>\n

Infratil was down 28c to $10.94; Port of Tauranga declined 20c or 2.53% to $7.70; and Vista Group decreased 16c or 8.89% to $1.64.<\/p>\n

Amongst the few gainers, Mainfreight was up $1 to $63; Vulcan Steel increased 16c or 2.06% to $7.94; and Winton Land gained 5.5c or 2.85% to $1.98.<\/p>\n

Tourism Holdings, up 4c to $2.35, has a conditional agreement to sell its UK and Ireland assets to Portugal-based recreation vehicle rental company Indie Campers for an expected $58.3m.<\/p>\n

The company said the timing of the transaction will negatively impact operating earnings by $1.1m in the second half of the 2026 financial year because of the loss of UK and Ireland high-season income in the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n

Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The market was weighed down by Contact\u2019s $525m capital raise to help fund renewable energy projects, and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[101015,9526,138,651,16579,21048,5972,127,6097,4568,1667,117853,96972,160364,225,19332,2683,111,139,69,106462,1125,18835,8229,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-288608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-101015","9":"tag-another","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-close","12":"tag-contact","13":"tag-couldnt","14":"tag-day","15":"tag-despite","16":"tag-down","17":"tag-earnings","18":"tag-energy","19":"tag-freightways","20":"tag-halfyear","21":"tag-heavyweights","22":"tag-market","23":"tag-milk","24":"tag-move","25":"tag-new-zealand","26":"tag-newzealand","27":"tag-nz","28":"tag-produced","29":"tag-sharemarket","30":"tag-strong","31":"tag-they","32":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}