Market commentaries
AUCKLAND: New Zealand shares joined a global rally after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell indicated an early pause to higher interest rates, stoking demand for growth stocks such as Pushpay Holdings.
The S&P/NZX 50 index rose 80.92 points, or 0.9%, to 8794.88. Within the index, 34 stocks gained, 10 fell, and six were unchanged. Turnover was $111.1 million.
Pushpay led the index higher, up 5.3% to $3.39 on twice its average volume. Tech stocks were buoyed by Mr Powell’s comments on Wednesday night with the Nasdaq up 3%.
Greg Smith, head of research at Fat Prophets, said the Fed’s stance was markedly different to just a few months ago in assessing monetary policy to be just below neutral. That supported stock markets around the world heading into the G20 leaders’ meeting this weekend.
‘‘Risk appetite came back and there was a big bounce in the Nasdaq last night,’’ he said. ‘‘That would be good for companies like Pushpay.’’
Sky Network Television rose 4% to $2.34 and Summerset Group gained 3.2% at $6.42 on light volumes. A2 Milk rose 1.1% to $10.90 on average volumes of 1.3 million.
Spark New Zealand was the most traded stock with 2.8 million shares changing hands. The telco rose 1.2% to $4.17, a day after its infrastructure partner Huawei was deemed to be a security risk by the Government Communications Security Bureau and effectively blocked from building its 5G mobile network. Fixedline network operator Chorus fell 1.4% to $4.775 on a volume of 1.9 million, compared to an average 468,000.
Meridian Energy rose 2.5% to $3.25 on a larger volume than normal of 2.2 million, while Infratil increased 0.9% to $3.57 on volume of 2 million, compared to its 90day average of 372,000.
Fletcher Building advanced 1.9% to $4.79 on volume of 1.9 million shares. The building company applied to the Commerce Commission to buy a quarry operation, but not the land underneath.
Air New Zealand increased 0.3% to $3.10 on 1.3 million shares. The airline carried more passengers in October. Separately, chief executive Christopher Luxon sold 1.5 million shares on market for $4.575 million yesterday. He still holds 3 million shares.
Gentrack sank 7.5% to $6.15 after warning that Brexit had created uncertainty among the utilities software provider’s customers.
Smith said the company’s earnings were in line with guidance, but that investors were nervous about the situation in Europe with Brexit and Italy’s budget projections.
Outside the benchmark index, Augusta Capital fell 0.5% to $1.085 on light volumes. It more than doubled firsthalf profit after shifting its focus to managing assets and syndication offers rather than simply investing directly in property.
Moa Group was unchanged at 43c after narrowing its firsthalf loss and affirming plans to break even.
Pacific Edge rose 2.6% to 40c after reporting increased sales and a smaller firsthalf loss. The bladder cancer test maker announced plans to raise another $12 million at 35c.
QEX Logistics was unchanged at $1.28 after tripling firsthalf sales and saying it was on track to deliver $60 million of annual revenue.
A The Australian share market burst out of the gates after a strong lead from Wall Street and held on to most of its gains by the close, buoyed by the banking sector and mining stocks on higher commodity prices.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 33.3 points, or 0.58%, at 5758.4 yesterday, while the broader All Ordinaries rose 0.61%.
The ASX climbed as much as 0.94% earlier in the day after the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq each advanced 2.3% or more overnight, which CommSec chief market analyst Steven Daghlian said was driven by comments made by the US Federal Reserve chairman.
‘‘The market looks for any sort of hints as to what might happen to interest rates, and of the most interest were comments suggesting there could be fewer rate hikes in the next year,’’ he said.
‘‘That seemed to push the US dollar lower and helped commodity prices lift, which in turn rubs off on our market.’’
The market was then choppy throughout the day and Mr Daghlian said this reflected buyers being cautious before the G20 summit and the critical trade talks between the US and China.
Higher iron ore and copper prices continued to support the materials sector that — aside from the smaller tech sector — was the biggest riser.
BHP climbed 1.2% to $30.98, South32 gained 1.6% to $3.14, and Fortescue Metals continued its strong recent run with a 2.3% rise to $4.03.
Rio Tinto was 1.7% higher at $73.25 after finally giving the green light to the $3.5 billion Kookaideri mine in Western Australia.
Financials had fallen back through the day’s trading but still recorded a sector gain of 0.5% at close, with ANZ the strongest of the big four, rising 0.7% higher to $27.15, and NAB the weakest, unchanged at $24.91.
Macquarie Group was 1.5% higher at $116.81. Consumer staples were higher despite Coles being one of the biggest drags on the share market, losing 2.4% to $12.39, as it continues to adjust to trading as its own separate entity.