Market commentaries
WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares surged on a2 Milk Co’s recovery from last week’s selling, while Air New Zealand gained on news it will drop an alliance with Virgin Australia.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index gained 68.15 points to 8398.08. Within the index, 30 stocks rose, 15 fell and five were unchanged. Turnover was $136.4 million.
Grant Williamson, director at Hamilton Hindin Greene, said the volatility over the past two days on Wall Street ‘‘is not really affecting NZ or Australia to any large degree’’, and the local market was still quiet following the long Easter weekend.
‘‘A lot of today’s gain is coming from a rebound in a2,’’ Mr Williamson said. ‘‘The news of a bit of competition did knock back the share price somewhat, but it is improving pretty well now.’’
Synlait was the best performer, up 4.6% to $8.95, while a2 Milk rose 3.6% to $12.92.
A2’s share price has been under pressure on news that competitors have begun selling their own a2branded infant formulas in China.
Air New Zealand gained 3.9% to $3.325. The airline will end its strategic alliance with Virgin Australia Holdings in October when regulatory approval for their shared services ends.
Chief revenue officer Cam Wallace said it was the right time for each airline to pursue their own goals and the airline had built up a significant presence in the inbound visitor market from Australia, which is New Zealand’s largest.
Fletcher Building was the worst performer, down 2.5% to $5.78, the lowest the stock has traded since July 2012. Mr Williamson said the stock remained under pressure after a series of poor results.
A The Australian sharemarket ended yesterday with a late move into positive territory, recovering from a slump earlier in the day to catch up with a strong overnight lead from Wall Street.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 9.5 points at 5761.4 points while the broader All Ordinaries index rose 4.6 points to 5863.7.
The big four banks edged ahead at the close, but the miners and energy companies remained largely flat on a day of lacklustre trade.
CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy said local markets essentially failed to launch.
‘‘The big bounceback overnight in US stocks counts for nothing here as Asia Pacific traders have reacted to the latest SinoUS titfortat trade tariffs with great caution,’’ Mr McCarthy said.
ANZ lost 1c to $26.54, Commonwealth Bank rose 54c, or 0.8%, to $72.80, Westpac added 11c to $28.74 and National Australia Bank gained 8c to $28.51.
Despite a slight fall in global oil prices, Oil Search gained 1.7%, to $7.20 and Woodside Petroleum was up 0.7% to $29.65, while takeover target Santos lost 0.9%, to $5.84 after strong gains on Tuesday.
In commodity markets, gold recovered some of its overnight losses but local goldminers remained significantly lower, Newcrest mining the worst, down 1.5%, to $19.72.
Flight Centre lost 1.1% to $56.66 after the Federal Court ordered it pay a $12.5 million fine for pricefixing in a longrunning case brought against it by the ACCC.
National turnover was 3.4 billion securities traded worth $A6.5 billion. — BusinessDesk/AAP