Market commentary
AUCKLAND: The New Zealand sharemarket made a reasonable gain, but with very few developments to work from it was not a time for investors to get too excited.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index gained 65.44 points or 0.56% to 11,812.73 on solid trade of 48.98 million shares worth $220.45 million. There were 83 gainers and 43 decliners over the whole market.
Across the Tasman the Australian market was having a strong day, with the S&P/ASX 200 up 1.68% to 5913.8 points at 5.45pm, but the New Zealand bourse failed to take the bait.
Mark Lister, head of private wealth research with Craigs Investment Partners, said the local market was in a waiting game.
‘‘There’s no major news flowing. The Reserve Bank is not reporting back till November, and we have a general election coming up.
‘‘It’s no man’s land and we are at the mercy of what happens in the United States. The economic data is going well but there has been a pushback in their markets. People think Joe Biden will become president and with it comes higher taxes and other changes.
‘‘There’s a good chance their election result will be contested and Congress is struggling to get agreement on the next tranche of economic support,’’ Mr Lister said.
The NZX’s leading stock Fisher and Paykel Healthcare made up a lot of the index’s gain. Fisher and Paykel rebounded with a rise of 77c or 2.31% to $34.04, making up about 20% of the trading with $46.18 million worth of shares changing hands.
After experiencing three days of big falls, a2 Milk steadied a little and was down 15c to $15.19 on trade worth $19.7 million. Synlait Milk continued to recover, rising 10c to $5.58.
Ryman Healthcare, up 31c or 2.20% to $14.39, and Oceania Healthcare, gaining 4c or 3.51% to $1.18, had another good day.
Lister said the Metlifecare shareholders are meeting today and the vote on the $1.27 billion takeover by Swedish private equity company EQT was expected to go through.
‘‘That’s another company we wave goodbye to on the market, and people see Oceania as a value stock and a natural place to reinvest their money. And the retirement village operators are being pushed along by the strong housing market.’’
The property stocks, which provide morethanuseful dividend yields, are also having a good time. Goodman Property was up 4c to $2.39, and Kiwi Property gained 3.5c or 3.30% to $1.095. Asset Plus completed the retail entitlement offer in its $60.2 million capital raising, and its share price remained unchanged at 31c.
Other gainers were Mainfreight, up 11c to $46.13; Contact Energy, gaining 8c to $6.73; Genesis, climbing 6.5c to $3; and Freightways moving 7c to $7.82.
Mr Lister said Freightways had been a laggard this year. ‘‘We had the pandemic stocks rising and now that restrictions are being lifted Freightways is a company that benefits from the reopening of trade.’’
The day’s biggest mover was Just Life Group , climbing 6c or 8% to 81c, after announcing it had bought The Cylinder Guy, a nationwide hot water cylinder installation and service business.
AWF Madison fell 8c or 5.33% to $1.42 after telling shareholders at the virtual annual meeting that tougher trading conditions had created an uncertain financial outlook for some of its divisions.
AWF, which started as Allied Workforce in 1988, is next month changing its name to Accordant. —