Air New Zealand Shares

Retail investors appear to be supportive of the airlines recovery plan. Friday, April 1st 2022, 5:56PM. by BusinessDesk. New Zealand's benchmark share index ...

The NZ market fell sharply at the start of the year but has been bouncing back and forth since – down 0.1% in the past month, up 0.2% in the past week – despite some substantial market news. Today was the last opportunity to buy shares and get onto the register before the record date on Monday evening.Those shares are likely to fall sharply on Monday when they no longer carry the right to buy more shares at 53 cents each.Ryman Healthcare had the biggest fall on the index today, declining 2.2% to $9.17, followed by Vista Group International which declined 2.15% to $1.82.On the other side of the board, Tourism Holdings bounced 3.2% to  $2.95 as it recovered from negative-sounding statements from regulators regarding its attempted acquisition of Apollo.Pacific Edge has also been weak but recovered 3.1% to 99 cents today, likely helped by a Forsyth Barr research note this week which said the stock had been oversold and was still worth $1.30.NZ Refinery changed its name to Channel Infrastructure NZ, and its shares rose 1% to $1.05. The company is converting from an oil refinery to a processed fuel import terminal.Synlait Milk was up 1.2% at $3.35 after it reported a jump in first-half net profit and hinted at “robust profitability” in the full year.The NZ dollar retreated from yesterday’s year-to-date high of 69.75 and was trading at 69.24 at 3pm in Wellington.ANZ strategist, David Croy, said while the US dollar has continued to gain strength, it hasn’t kept pace with the NZ dollar which has performed strongly as commodity prices and short-end interest rates have risen. Dominating the headlines this week has been Air NZ’s mammoth capital raise, which is one of the biggest in local market history.Shares in the airline fell another 1.9% to $1.26 today, bringing its five-day drop to 9.6%.While that’s a significant loss, the share price is holding up better than expected and is trading well above the offer price – even once adjusted for dilution.Greg Smith, head of retail at Devon Funds, said he was surprised the shares hadn’t “lost more altitude” and it seems some investors are happy to back the airline’s recovery.“The reality is however that the airline still faces substantial challenges ahead, and as Dame Therese Walsh aptly noted, the ride ahead will be a ‘bumpy’ one,” he said.Many investors will have been buying shares today so they will be eligible to take part in the capital raise at the reduced price. New Zealand's benchmark share index followed a generally weak global trend and declined slightly on Friday but will finish both the week and the month virtually unchanged.