Market commentaries
WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares followed Wall Street higher as better than expected US company earnings buoyed investor confidence. Local growth stocks, including a2 Milk and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, gained.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 78.02 points, or 0.8%, to 9846.35. Within the index, 29 stocks gained, 13 fell and eight were unchanged. Turnover was $129 million.
A2 Milk led the local market higher, up 4.2% at a record $15.23 on a volume of 721,000 shares, just shy of its 868,000 threemonthly average. Synlait Milk, which supplies a2, rose 2.9% to $10.70 on a smaller than usual volume of 44,000 shares.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was the most active stock on a volume of 2.2 million shares — more than threetimes its 90day average of 660,000.
Sky Network Television rose 1.6% to $1.25. One of its flagship programmes, Game of Thrones started its final season yesterday.
Spark New Zealand fell 0.6% to $3.615 on a volume of 2.1 million shares, less than half its 90day average. SkyCity Entertainment was up 0.3% at $4 on a volume of 1.8 million shares, more than twice its 686,000 average.
Infratil extended recent gains, up 2.1% at $4.39 on a volume of 555,000 shares, more than its 424,000 average.
Auckland International Airport increased 0.3% to $7.99 on a volume of 1.1 million shares. Queenstown Airport, of which Auckland Airport owns a quarter, projected a 13% increase in winter capacity due to extra flights from Qantas and Jetstar. Air New Zealand rose 1.5% to $2.78 on a volume of 616,000 shares, almost half its 90day average.
Fletcher Building was the only other company in the benchmark index to trade on a volume of more than a million shares. It fell 0.8% to $4.96. Heartland Group Holdings reported the biggest fall, down 4.2% at $1.58 on a volume of 343,000 shares, down on its 397,000 average.
Metlifecare fell 1.3% to $4.63 and Kathmandu Holdings decreased 0.9% to $2.25.
Outside the benchmark index, PGG Wrightson rose 1% to 50c after announcing a boardroom reshuffle.
NZME was unchanged at 55c, on a bigger than usual volume of 2.7 million shares.
The Australian sharemarket has started the week flat, with volumes light as many traders took the week off as the Easter school holidays began nationwide.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed up a tenth of a point, to 6,251.4 points at 1615 AEST yesterday, while the broader All Ordinaries gained 0.9 points, or 0.01%, to 6,347.9.
Miners, health care stocks, utilities and consumer discretionary shares were down, while consumer staples, energy stocks, and the financial sector was up.
Commonwealth Bank gained 0.78% to $72.19, Westpac was up 0.54% to $26.06, ANZ gained 0.88% to $26.25 and NAB was up 0.57% to $24.83.
While the material sector was down collectively 0.35%, Rio Tinto gained 0.25% to $100.75 after it said it was investing $A421 million to expand its Resolution copper project in Arizona.
BHP fell 0.10% to $39.54 and South32 fell 1.13% to $3.50, while Fortescue Metals gained 0.99% to $8.15.
Shares in several companies hit alltime highs, including IDP Education (up 0.26% to $15.49), Nearmap (up 1.55% to $3.28), Zip Co (up 12.5% to $2.70), A2Milk (up 4.06% to $14.61) and Bravura Solution (up 7.05% to $5.47).
The energy sector was in the black thanks to higher oil prices, with Santos, Oil Search and Origin Energy all trading between 0.55% and 1.28% higher.
Caltex lost 1.16% to $27.35 after it announced the completion of a $260 million offmarket buyback, while Woodside Petroleum gained 0.22% to $35.84.
Gold miners were hit hard as precious metal prices softened in the face of strong overseas equities markets.
Health care shares dipped 0.71‘%, while CSL was down 1.17‘% to $195.54. — BusinessDesk/AAP