Market commentaries

AUCKLAND: New Zealand shares gained in light trading, led higher by Pushpay Holdings and Air New Zealand while Genesis Energy and Mercury New Zealand fell.

The S&P/NZX50 Index rose 6.72 points, or 0.08%, to 8996.52. Within the index, 26 stocks fell, 16 rose and eight were unchanged. Turnover was $118.3 million.

Pushpay led the index higher, up 2.7% to $4.18.

‘‘Tech stocks are more in favour in the US — they have been sold off in the last few days over talks about a retail tax affecting that tech sector, but that trade war rhetoric has died down a bit. They’re stronger today on reasonable volume,’’ Peter McIntyre, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners, said.

Air New Zealand gained 2.2% to $3.22. The company has been ordered to pay $A15 million ($NZ16.2 million) for its role in a global air cargo cartel through the middle of last decade by Australia’s Federal Court, and has agreed to pay $A2 million towards the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s costs.

‘‘They’ve obviously provisioned for this because it has no material impact on their guidance for 2018 earnings,’’ Mr McIntyre said.

‘‘The market has taken that in its stride and expected Air New Zealand to have that provisioned and that has been the case.’’

Synlait Milk rose 2.7% to $11.50, Spark New Zealand was up 1.8% to $3.75, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare gained 1.4% to $15.26.

Genesis Energy was the worst performer, down 2.2% to $2.415, while Mercury NZ dropped 1.9% to $3.32 and Mainfreight fell 1.7% to $27.50.

Investore Property dipped 0.7% to $1.48. At its annual meeting for shareholders, the Aucklandbased largeformat retail property investor managed by Stride Property confirmed guidance for an annual cash dividend payment of 7.46c a share for its fiscal 2019 year.

It told shareholders it will focus on potential acquisition and development of adjoining and adjacent properties, redevelopment for socalled brownfields — contaminated and underused industrial and commercial properties — as well as a potential sharebuyback programme. — BusinessDesk

Australian shares closed flat yesterday, with gains for energy and material stocks not doing enough to overcome losses elsewhere on the market.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index ended down 1.7 points, or 0.03%, at 6195.9 points, while the broader All Ordinaries was down 1.6 points, or 0.03%, at 6290.5 points.

National turnover was 3.3 billion securities traded worth $6.8 billion. — AAP