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Speaker 1: We're looking back at the year that was on the

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Speaker 1: stock market, the Index fifty with the winners and losers

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Speaker 1: joining us Jeremy Hutton from Milford Asset Management, Jeremy good evening,

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Speaker 1: Good evening, Ryan, who is currently leading the indedex fifty

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Speaker 1: so far this year. Who are we crowning Number one?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so far. The current leader on the insiet X

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Speaker 2: fifty with about two trading weeks to go in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty four is Tower Insurance. Now. Tower is up a

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Speaker 2: whopping one hundred and fifteen percent this year, albeit it

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Speaker 2: is coming off a bit of a low base with

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Speaker 2: a horrid twenty twenty three with some some of the

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Speaker 2: bad weather events which really hit all the insurers hard.

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Speaker 2: But Tower has regained a lot of momentum, you know,

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Speaker 2: some more benign conditions in twenty twenty four and has

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Speaker 2: had some good operational improvements as well. So that has

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Speaker 2: led to a series of earnings upgrades throughout the year

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Speaker 2: and it's regained inclusion back in the very important incide

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Speaker 2: X fifty index. So that's been driving the really strong

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Speaker 2: share price performance from Tower and gin.

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Speaker 1: Track was the tech business we crowned last year. In

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. How did they perform this year?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, another very strong year for gen Track. It's up

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Speaker 2: one hundred and one percent in twenty twenty four, and

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Speaker 2: this follows a very strong and impressive one hundred and

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Speaker 2: sixty percent in twenty twenty three as well. So Genrack

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Speaker 2: provides software to electricity retailers and it's had some really

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Speaker 2: good tailwinds of these retailers wanting to shift from older,

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Speaker 2: clunkier systems onto gent tracks, more fit for purpose software.

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Speaker 2: It's been winning customers all around the world, many geographies,

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Speaker 2: growing revenue strongly and also in a big earnings upgrade cycle.

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Speaker 2: And with the electrification of everything in our economy, it

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Speaker 2: needs more smarts and more software to help deliver this.

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Speaker 2: So those tailwinds could continue. And it is great to

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Speaker 2: see a New Zealand tech business growing and doing really

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Speaker 2: well on the global stage.

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Speaker 1: It really is. It's a great story. Jeremy, Let's talk

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Speaker 1: about the losers, the not great stories which companies have

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Speaker 1: struggled this year.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, as we know, the domestic economy has been really

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Speaker 2: challenged with higher regious rates and consumer pockets getting squeezed,

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Speaker 2: and this has been reflected in the share prices of

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Speaker 2: companies that are exposed to sectors in this So with

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Speaker 2: that backdrop, we've had retail that's been hit really hard,

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Speaker 2: so Catmandu that's down forty eight percent this year, the

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Speaker 2: web House down thirty seven percent as well, and their

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Speaker 2: construction has been really tough, so that's affected Fletcher Building

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Speaker 2: that's down thirty eight percent, and then residential housing also

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Speaker 2: been pretty slow. Royman Healthcare has some exposure to that,

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Speaker 2: so that's down twenty seven percent. But then even Spark,

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Speaker 2: which is traditionally a very defensive business that's been hit

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Speaker 2: very hard with businesses and governments reducing their IT and

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Speaker 2: mobile spend, and that stock that is down forty six

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Speaker 2: percent so far this year.

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Speaker 1: Overall, the house the Injects fifty performed this year as

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Speaker 1: a whole is a collective, Yeah, I'd.

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Speaker 2: Say it's been a pass for the nxet X fifty.

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Speaker 2: It's up eight percent so far this year, and given

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Speaker 2: some of the constraints and the pressure on the local economy,

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Speaker 2: it's actually not too bad of a result. Unfortunately, it

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Speaker 2: is behind the very powerful US indexes, some of which

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Speaker 2: are up over twenty five percent, mainly on that magnificent

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Speaker 2: seven and AI boom. But I think the setup for

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Speaker 2: New Zealand is improving into twenty twenty five. You know,

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Speaker 2: we've had some decent interest rate cuts delivered already and

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Speaker 2: likely some more to come, so we should start to

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Speaker 2: see some of these beaten up cyclical sectors turn much

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Speaker 2: more positive in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: It's hope, so Jeremy, we need it very much. Jeremy

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Speaker 1: Hutton from Milford Asset Management. For more from Heather Duplessy

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Speaker 1: Allen Drive, Listen live to news Talks i'd Be from

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