Market commentaries
WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares gained yesterday as the US earnings season helped lift sentiment towards equities. Growthlinked companies including Synlait Milk, A2 Milk, Comvita led gains.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 3.54 points, or 0.04%, to 8373.03. Within the index, 26 stocks fell, 13 rose and 11 were unchanged. Turnover was $111 million.
Across the Asia Pacific region, equity markets were generally stronger. Overnight, better earnings from US companies lifted Wall Street.
‘‘The US earnings season has got off to a good start,’’ Greg Smith, of Fat Prophets, said. ‘‘The focus is going to turn away from geopolitical concerns back to the earnings season, which highlights the underlying strength in the US economy.’’
Synlait climbed 3% to $9.88 and is up 38% for the year, while A2 rose 2.8% to $12.70, bringing its yeartodate gain to 58%. Comvita rose 2.3% to $6.75.
Scales Corp, the apple grower and exporter, rose 2.3% to $4.50. It told BusinessDesk yesterday it was eyeing agribusiness acquisitions that would fit well with its export apple business.
‘‘We have over the years developed our skills around exporting and dealing with Asia, particularly China, and we are looking at businesses within New Zealand that would work with those sort of dynamics and be complementary to our apple business,’’ chief executive Andy Borland said.
On the Unlisted platform, Zespri traded at a record $8.35, becoming Unlisted’s first $1 billion company.
Heartland Bank rose 1.1% to $1.78 and Trade Me Group climbed 1.1% to $4.44. Chorus rose 0.9% to $4.
Defensive stocks were among the biggest decliners. Metlifecare fell 2.2% to $5.70 and Mercury NZ fell 1.7% to $3.15. Traders have speculated that Mercury could drop out of a benchmark MSCI index when weightings are reviewed. Fletcher Building, another contender, is halted for its capital raising.
Arvida Group dropped 1.7% to $1.18 and Ryman Healthcare fell 1.4% to $10.63.
A The Australian sharemarket closed higher for a fifth straight session, led by the mining and energy sectors, after commodity prices jumped on hopes of stronger economic activity in China and low US oil stocks. That also helped the Australian dollar rise against the US dollar, despite a temporary fall after the release of weakerthanexpected March jobs figures.
The mining sector was the standout. BHP Billiton was up 2.8% to $30.92, despite trimming its fullyear iron ore production guidance, Rio Tinto gained 3.1% to $81.42, Fortescue Metals added 3.5% to $4.71 and South32 was 4.6% higher at $3.88.
Energy stocks strengthened after oil futures jumped nearly 3% on a report that showed lowerthanexpected US crude stocks and Saudi Arabia signalled that it would prefer the oil price to be closer to $US100 a barrel.
The SPI200 futures contract was up 15 points, or 0.26%, at 5853. National turnover was 4 billion securities traded, worth $6.7 billion.