NZ sharemarket lifts as Fletcher Building shares rally on news of buyer inquiries

The S&P/NZX 50 Index closed up 0.33% or 41.51 points, rising to 12,605.93, with 39,702,689 shares changing hands to the value of $139.77 million.

The S&P/NZX 20 index closed at 7,429.32, up 0.33%, while the S&P/NZX 10 index closed at 1,894.34, up 0.30%.

There were 60 gainers on the main board and 60 decliners.

Fletcher Building’s share price rallied after saying it had had inquiries from parties interested in buying its businesses, including its construction division.

Shares in Fletcher rose 9.97% to $3.31, up 30c, with 2,369,726 shares changing hands to the value of $7,747,938.62.

Wounded duck

Devon Funds Management head of retail Greg Smith said Fletcher felt like a bit of a wounded duck at the moment.

“By releasing a short statement like that, they’re inviting further interest. They’ve had some expressions of interest, and so I suppose it’s putting the sector and investors on notice,” Smith said. “Even if the economy is turning around, which you could probably argue that point, there are a few other moving parts so it’s not without risk for someone coming along. I suppose they think they can get it on the cheap.”

He said Fletcher Building had been an underperforming stock for a long time, calling it a “serial disappointer”, but its recent restructuring and its plan to get rid of the Australian division could work in its favour.

Spark's share price rose 2.86% to $2.34, up 6.5c, amid speculation in the Australian that a private equity investor is interested in the company.

M&A activity making a comeback

Smith said merger and acquisition activity appeared to be making a comeback after a quiet period following United States President Donald Trump’s global tariff policies.

Shares in Air NZ remained flat after the airline announced it would fly to Western Sydney from mid-2027, becoming the first transtasman carrier to signal its intent to operate services to the new airport.

The agreement opens up a new route for transtasman travel, connecting Auckland with Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport (WSI).

Air NZ closed on 58.5c with 675,140 shares changing hands to the value of $396,549.85.

Auckland Airport shares rose 0.32% to $7.85, up 2c, with 1,102,845 shares changing hands to the value of $8,670,749.69.

Tower announced it had appointed a new chief executive in Paul Johnston. He had been acting chief executive and was formerly Tower’s chief financial officer.

“It’s probably interesting that it’s taken so long to hire them and to just go and hire someone internally. It’s like a bit of a replay of The Warehouse, who did a similar thing just a few weeks ago,” Smith said.

“Unlike The Warehouse, which has been a bit of a basket case in recent years, Tower has been performing quite strongly, and that’s off the back of what he’s been doing in that CFO role.”

Tower’s share price rose 2.04% to $1.50 with 192,998 shares trading hands.

Overseas advance

Wall Street stocks advanced on Tuesday (US time) as markets hoped for progress in US-China trade talks while digesting the World Bank’s lowered economic growth forecast.

A second day of high-level talks between the US and China in London stretched into the evening on Tuesday without any concrete announcement.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.3% at 42,866.87.

The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to 6,038.81, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also gained 0.6% to 19,715.00.

– Additional reporting AFP