Market commentary

WALL Street pushed to record highs on the day new United States President Joe Biden was inaugurated and the New Zealand sharemarket caught the celebration spirit, rising more than half a percent.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index was up 85.74 points or 0.66% to 13,112.19 on solid trading of 69.6 million shares worth $201.65 million, as the leading energy stocks made a recovery. There were 100 gainers and 45 decliners over the whole market of 184 stocks.

Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said the local market took a positive lead from the developments in the US, driven by the reality that fiscal expansion would be greater under Mr Biden.

Mr Goodson said there would be more open trade policy, which was good news for the world and particularly New Zealand.

The NZ dollar strengthened again against the greenback, trading between a low of US71.69c and a high of 72.10c during the day.

The gentailers bounced back, Contact Energy rising 35c to $8.83, Meridian gaining 32c to $7.68, Mercury up 19c to $6.97, Genesis increasing 3c to $3.80 and Trustpower up 6c to $8.51. Wind farm specialist Tilt Renewables climbed 24c to $5.93.

In the battle of the biggest market stock, Meridian resumed the top spot with capitalisation of $19.68 billion after Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, on $19.16 billion, fell 43c to $33.26.

There was unusually high activity in Pushpay Holdings and 21.8 million of its shares, worth $34.7 million, were traded, suggesting an investor might be establishing a shareholding position in the software firm. Pushpay’s share price rose 8c to $1.60.

Among the blue chips, Freightways gained 7c to $10.55, Ryman Healthcare increased 21c to $15.46, Summerset Group Holdings rose 22c to $12.32, Port of Tauranga was up 15c to $7.65 and Skellerup Holdings climbed 14c to $3.93.

Mainfreight was down 79c to $67.30, a2 Milk declined 10c to $10.91; Chorus shed 15.5c to $8.10, Tourism Holdings lost 6c to $2.40 and Harmoney fell 10c to $2.90, after a strong rise the day before on a positive trading result.

Property stocks had another good day. Stride Property gained 4c to $2.36, Precinct Properties increased 4.5c to $1.725 and Kiwi Property was up 2c to $1.27.

AFT Pharmaceuticals climbed 11c to $5.21, Seeka gained 5c to $4.90, NZME was up 2c to 73c and Smartpay Holdings rose 5.5c to $1.035. —