Strong earnings results from Infratil and Turners Automotive, reporting a record year, could not stem a half a per cent fall on the New Zealand sharemarket.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index was on a gradual slide
all day and closed at 11,675.99, down 59.72 points or 0.51 per cent.

There were 73 gainers and 58 decliners over the whole market on volumes of 26.56 million share transactions worth more than $112.77m.

Utilities investor Infratil declined 55c or 4.89 per cent to $10.70 on trade worth $19.24m after reporting a 75.7 per cent rise in revenue to $3.323 billion and a 50.6 per cent increase in net profit to $845.5m for the year ending March. It is paying a final dividend of 13c a share on June 25.

Infratil’s proportionate operating earnings (ebitdaf) rose 63 per cent to $864m mainly as a result of taking full ownership of One NZ, formerly Vodafone. The ebitdaf guidance for the 2025 financial year was increased to $980m-$1.03b. Infratil has $820m available to find growth.

Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, attributed Infratil’s share price fall to the sharp rise the day before and slightly lower-than-expected earnings guidance.

“Infratil has a lot of moving parts and it was a complex result,” he said. “The guidance for One NZ and CDC data centres, which make up a lot of its business, was a touch lighter than what the bullish analysts expected.”

Manawa Energy, 51 per cent owned by Infratil, was down 20c or 4.5 per cent to $4.24.

Turners Automotive gained 12c or 2.93 per cent to $4.22 after reporting record earnings, with revenue increasing 7 per cent to $416.97m and net profit up 1.5 per cent to $32.97m for the 12 months ending March. Turners is paying a final dividend of 7.5c on July 26.

The auto retail division increased profit 27 per cent to $31.8m after opening two new branches. Turners said it is well placed to exceed its $50m profit target in the 2025 financial year and has set a new goal of $65m in the 2028 financial year.

Goodson said Turners, like other cyclical stocks, had been hard hit over the past few weeks but it was a savvy operator and the result showed the strength of its market position.

Fellow car dealers 2 Cheap Cars was up 2c or 2.56 per cent to 80c, and Colonial Motor Co was down 20c or 2.44 per cent to $8.

The market was underpinned by a2 Milk being up 17c or 2.35 per cent to $7.39, and Mercury Energy adding 12.5c or 1.95 per cent to $6.55.

Port of Tauranga gained 14c or 2.89 per cent to $4.99; Heartland Group increased 2c or 2 per cent to $1.02; ANZ Bank added 76c or 2.52 per cent to $30.94; and Arvida Group improved 4c or 4.17 per cent to $1.

Rakon was up 4c or 4.55 per cent to 92c; Argosy Property increased 5c or 4.67 per cent to $1.12; Comvita also gained 5c or 2.94 per cent to $1.75; and Eroad added 3c or 3.45 per cent to 90c.

Software firm Gentrack was up a further 6c to $9.50 after earlier reporting its best first-half result for the airports business with revenue increasing 49.4 per cent to $15.5m. Utilities (energy and water) revenue was up 17 per cent to $86.5m.

SkyCity Entertainment gained 3c to $1.76 after announcing an agreement with the Department of Internal Affairs over anti-money laundering breaches between 2018 and 2023.

SkyCity will pay $4.16m on approval by the High Court, and the casino operator is now paying a total of $77.16m in penalties for similar breaches on both sides of the Tasman.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down 49c to $28.36; Fletcher Building decreased 8c or 2.68 per cent to $2.91; Stride Property fell 7c or 5.43 per cent to $1.22; and Investore declined 3c or 2.86 per cent to $1.02.

Michael Hill shed 3c or 5.45 per cent to 52c; KMD Brands was down 2.5c or 5.81 per cent to 45.5c; Delegat Group declined 19c or 3.55 per cent to $5.16; and Seeka decreased 12c or 4.94 per cent to $2.31.

Pacific Edge, down 0.007c or 6.86 per cent to 9.5c, reported a 22 per cent increase in full-year operating revenue to $29.3m, lifted by a 2 per cent rise in commercial Cxbladder test volumes in the United States market. Its net loss was $29.53m compared with $26.96m in the previous year.

Pacific Edge is still counting on Medicare funding coverage in the US with a decision expected by July 26.