Market commentary
WELLINGTON: The New Zealand sharemarket traded positively all day yesterday, picking up nearly 0.5%, following a strong rebound on Wall Street and elsewhere overseas.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index closed at 12,709.14, up 58.29 points, after reaching an intraday high of 12,728.49.
There were 97 gainers and just 39 decliners over the whole market on solid volume of 63.4 million shares worth $193.75 million.
Mark Lister, head of private wealth research with Craigs Investment Partners, said individual stocks were bouncing around and with little corporate or economic news locally, there was no consistent theme to the rises.
‘‘Our market is presently being driven by what it is seeing in the bigger international ones, and will continue to do so this week with a swag of corporate results to come in the United States.
‘‘Wall Street rebounded strongly and the Asian and Australian markets also followed suit, and New Zealand is going along for the ride,’’ Mr Lister said.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 0.85% to 7313.80 points at 6pm (NZ time). Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had recovered 1.62% of its previous day’s 2% fall, closing at 34,511.99 points. The S&P 500 Index increased 1.52% to 4323.06, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.57% to 14,498.88.
At home, the eclectic group of main movers were NZX, rising 9c or 4.95% to $1.91; Mercury Energy, up 21c or 3.24% to $6.69; Arvida increasing 5c or 2.42% to $2.12; Steel and Tube gaining 6c or 5.26% to $1.20; and NZME picking up 3c or 3.23% to 96c — all representing different sectors.
Steel & Tube Holdings reported a strong performance and updated operating earnings of $20 million$22 million, including property gains of $2.8 million, for the year ending June. Steel & Tube expected to pay a dividend in September.
Market heavyweight Fisher and Paykel Healthcare continued to strengthen, increasing 25c to $31.85; a2 Milk rose 17c or 2.34% to $7.43; Fletcher Building climbed 23c or 3.27% to $7.27; Ryman Healthcare gained 6c to $13.07; and Genesis Energy collected 8c or 2.37% to $3.45.
Hallenstein Glasson Holdings told the market it now had 26 stores closed in Sydney and Victoria because of Covid lockdowns, and its share price remained unchanged at $7.31.
Smartpay Holdings reported strong growth in Australia, with revenue increasing 158% for the year ending June, and total transacting value rising 167%, from $224 million to $599 million, through 7306 retail terminals. Its share price increased 0.5c to 85.5c.
NZ Oil and Gas’ joint venture partner, Central Petroleum, advised that the Mereenie second development well in the Northern Territory had been spudded in, and NZOG’s share price increased 1c to 45c. —