Market commentaries
WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares rose for a second day yesterday as stocks weighed by fears about the jet fuel shortage in Auckland such as Air New Zealand and Z Energy joined other companies in bouncing back from a recent selldown.
The S&P/NZX 50 index gained 54.71 points to 7819.24. Within the index, 23 stocks rose, 22 fell and five were unchanged. Turnover was $156 million.
Air New Zealand and Z gained after coming under pressure in recent days in the wake of the damage to the pipeline linking the Marsden Point refinery to Auckland. Air NZ rose 1.3% to $3.24, Z gained 2.3% to $7.57 and Auckland Airport rose 1.1% to $6.45.
New Zealand Refining, however, fell 0.8% to $2.42.
Nikko Asset Management senior portfolio manager James Lindsay said other companies that bounced back yesterday had been sold off in recent days, such as telecommunications network operator Chorus, breathing mask maker Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, and power company Mercury NZ. They rose 2.3% to $4.01, 2.9% to $3.355, and 2.5% to $12.45 respectively. Mercury led the index higher.
Synlait Milk was the worst performer, falling 2.5% to $5.40. The stock had reached an alltime high on Tuesday after posting an 11% rise in annual profit and has been a beneficiary of the rapid growth at A2 Milk, which it supplies. A2 rose 1.9% to $6.
Fletcher Building slipped 0.1% to $8.16, after the departure of directors John Judge and Kate Spargo.
The Australian sharemarket recovered most of the ground lost in a poor start to the day but still closed marginally lower, as weaker iron ore prices weighed on the mining sector.
Investors are also waiting on the US Federal Reserve’s statement this morning on its monetary policy stance.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index dropped 4.5 points to 5709.1 points. The broader All Ordinaries index fell 2.7 points to 5769.7 points.
CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner said the selling evident on the market on Tuesday afternoon had spilled over into yesterday morning. When prices were low enough, some buyers returned.
‘‘The significant drop in iron ore prices has also been well on the negative side of the ledger for the market today, with materials down as well as being a negative generally for the Australian economy,’’ he said.
Investors were also waiting to hear the US Federal Reserve’s view on the expected pace of interest rates hikes, and would be watching for any indication it was getting nervous about the current trajectory, Mr Spooner said.
In the miners, Rio Tinto lost 1.2% to $66.06, BHP Billiton fell 0.4% to $26.19 and Fortescue Metals dropped 1.8% to $5.33.
Among the major banks, ANZ was the worst performer, dropping 0.6% to $30.03. Commonwealth Bank was the only one to gain, edging up 0.01% to $76.29.
The gains made by TPG Telecom on Tuesday after the company posted annual profit growth were wiped out by a 6.7% fall to $5.12. Telstra also lost ground, dropping 1.4% to $3.60.
The SPI200 futures contract was down 3 points at 5711.
National turnover was 3.5 billion securities traded worth $5.2 billion.