Market commentaries

WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares started softly but ended stronger yesterday as Sky Network Television pared back some of Thursday’s losses amid speculation it had won the rights to broadcast All Blacks and Super rugby matches.

The S&P/NZX50 50 Index increased by 36.98 points, or 0.3%, to 10,923.71. Within the index, 27 stocks rose, 16 fell and seven were unchanged. Turnover was $83.3 million

Sky rose 1.1% to 89c, having shed about a fifth of its value on Thursday. Almost 1.5 million shares traded hands, after 3.3 million were traded on Thursday. Its 90day average is 848,000 shares.

A2 Milk led the market higher, up 2.3% at $13.20 on a volume of 328,000 shares, less than half its 782,000 average.

Chris Timms, an investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners, said investors were still looking for quality stocks, which supported the likes of a2 and other wellknown companies, including Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Meridian Energy. F&P Healthcare rose 0.6% to $17 and Meridian was up 0.7% at $5.31 on a volume of almost 2 million shares.

Fletcher Building was yesterday’s volume leader, more than 2.3 million shares trading hands, compared with its 1.4 million average. The stock fell 0.8% to $4.70.

Investore Property posted the day’s biggest decline, down 2.1% at $1.85 on a volume of 83,000 shares, almost half its 151,000 average.

Overnight leads were broadly positive, and stocks across Asia were stronger. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 2.1% in afternoon trading and the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4%. The S&P/ASX 200 Index advanced 0.9%.

Mr Timms said the low interest rate environment meant investors were accepting a bit of risk for more return, given more optimism about the trade talks between the US and China.

Air New Zealand was trading up 0.7% at $2.85 after the national carrier announced Greg Foran, the chief executive of Walmart US, would return to New Zealand to take over as chief executive from early next year.

Outside the benchmark index, Michael Hill International shares rose 14.5% to a sixmonth high of 71c, with almost 1.8 million shares traded. The jeweller yesterday reported a 9.7% lift in September quarter sales, although it said margin compression was still an issue.

• The Australian share market closed solidly higher yesterday amid optimism progress is being made between the US and China on trade.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished up 59.7 points, or 0.91%, at 6606.8 points, while the broader All Ordinaries was up 59 points, or 0.89%, at 6721.9 points.

Healthcare and mining stocks were the strongest performers and most sectors were up 1.3%.

Biotech giant CSL rose 2% to record high of $244.54 and Neuren Pharmaceuticals climbed 8.9% to $2.33 after the US Food and Drug Administration granted an orphan drug designation for its drug candidate to treat the genetic disorder Angelman syndrome.

Mining giant BHP climbed 2.1% to $35.82, Rio Tinto rose 2.3% to $89.97 and Fortescue Metals surged 4.1% to $8.81 after extending its $500 million share buyback programme for another 12 months.

Gold miners were lower as traders fled safe harbour assets for riskier ones. Newcrest and Evolution were both down 1.5% and Northern Star fell 1.2%.

But Silver Lake Resources spiked 12.5% to $1.035 on a strong quarterly production update.

Toll road operator Transurban, which functions as a bond proxy, fell 2.3% to $14.60 to drag down the industrial sector, the only one to lose ground.

The big banks were all higher. Commonwealth was up 0.9% at $78.77, ANZ climbed 1.1% to $27.49, Westpac up 0.8% at $28.75 and NAB up 0.6% at $28.20.

Michael Hill International rose 19.3% to a sixmonth high of 68c after announcing samestore sales at its jewellery stores surged 11.9% in the September quarter.

Other strong gainers included Macquarie Group, up 2.2%; Xero, up 3.4%; Telstra, up 1.7%; and CIMIC Group, up 5.1%.

Air New Zealand was flat at $2.66.

The Aussie dollar was buying US67.79c, up from US67.46c on Thursday.