Market commentaries

WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares edged higher as Tourism Holdings snapped a sevenday slide on a broker upgrade. Spark New Zealand was among several companies shedding rights to dividends.

The S&P/NZX 50 increased 15.81 points, or 0.2%, to 9360.87. Within the index, 22 stocks gained, 21 fell and seven were unchanged. Turnover was $150.7 million.

Grant Williamson, a director at Hamilton Hindin Greene, said the index had teetered between negative and positive territory and largely ignored Wall Street’s gain overnight.

‘‘The Dow was quite firm, but it hasn’t flowed through to Australia or New Zealand,’’ he said. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6%.

Tourism Holdings rose 4.1% to $5.30 after Forsyth Barr upgraded the stock to ’’outperform’’, saying fears about valuation were overdone. The rental camper van operator had shed 11% in a sevenday decline that took the stock to a 10month low. Forsyth Barr kept its target price at $6.

The power companies mostly gained after government data showed renewable energy generation was at a 37year high in the June quarter. Genesis Energy rose 1.2% to $2.575, Meridian increased 1.2% to $3.40, Trustpower advanced 0.2% to $6.06 and Contact Energy gained 1% to $5.90. Mercury NZ was unchanged at $3.35.

Among the bluechip stocks, a2 Milk Co rose 0.9% to $12.38, Mainfreight increased 0.3% to $29.90, Air New Zealand declined 0.2% to $3.17 and Fletcher Building decreased 1.4% to $6.23.

Spark fell 2.1%, or 8.5c, to $3.98, after shedding rights to dividends of 12.5c per share. Chorus declined 0.5% to $4.975. Other stocks to go exdividend include Port of Tauranga, which fell 1.4%, or 7c to $5.08. It shed rights to an 11c dividend. Comvita gave up rights to a 2c dividend, but rose 2.8%, or 18c, to $6.65.

Restaurant Brands New Zealand gained 0.9% to $7.73 after reporting a 12% increase in secondquarter sales. Outside the benchmark index, Briscoe Group increased 0.9% to $3.53. The retailer increased firsthalf profit 2.7% and raised its interim dividend for an 11th straight year.

Supermarket and banking stocks have pulled the Australian sharemarket lower, with international trade hostilities weighing on the indices.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 20.5 points, or 0.33%, to 6169.5 points yesterday, while the broader All Ordinaries index was 20.2 points, or 0.32%, lower at 6276.8 points.

Rakuten Securities Australia chief operating officer Nick Twidale pointed to lingering trade volatility between the US and China to explain the fall in benchmark consumer staples Woolworths and Wesfarmers, which were down 1.4 and 1.9% respectively.

Losses were felt across the sharemarket with consumer discretionary, utilities and industrial stocks were all down more than 1%.

The Australian dollar, which is sensitive to Chineserelated trade issues, reached a threeweek high having gained 1.4% so far this week.

The Aussie weakened later in the day, buying US72.57c at 1630 AEST, down from US72.49 on Wednesday.

Materials posted strong gains as global trade tensions eased and copper prices soared.

The sector was up 1.1%, buoyed by Rio Tinto’s rise of 3.6% to $78.10 and BHP up 1.1% to $32.77.

Healthcare was the only other sector to finish in the green on the back of benchmark CSL lifting 2.2% to $206.88.

In companies news, Soul Pattinson reported its profit has fallen 20% to $266.8 million compared with $333.1 million a year ago.

Solomon Lewbacked Premier Investments’ fullyear net profit dropped more than 20% to $83.64 million, on the back of impairments.

Soul’s shares were down 6.3% to $24.04 and Premier’s shares fell 2.3% to $19. — BusinessDesk/AAP