Market commentary
WELLINGTON: The New Zealand sharemarket chalked up another solid day’s work yesterday with a 1% rise following strong gains on Wall Street and renewed buying in local bluechip stocks.
The S&P/NZX 500 Index climbed steadily all day and closed at 12,090.93, up 123.21 points or 1.03%. The index has now risen more than 5% so far this year.
There were 82 gainers and 41 decliners over the whole market with 38.77 million shares worth $135.81 million changing hands.
Salt Funds Management managing director Matt Goodson said despite the uncertainty over corporate earnings forecasts and the United States Federal Reserve’s decision to slow interest rate hikes, people wanted to own shares rather than bonds.
‘‘That’s been the story since the start of January and it spilled over to New Zealand and Australia. The markets have moved to a goldilocks narrative that sees central banks going on hold or starting to cut rates, and corporate downgrade risks being of no great concern,’’ he said.
Cannasouth, up 0.005c or 1.75% to 29c, said the sale of manufacturing subsidiary Midwest Pharmaceuticals to Harker Herbal Products had been delayed until the end of this month — with one government agency still having to complete the transfer of consents.
Greenfern Industries cofounder John Hussey is stepping down from daytoday involvement in the medicinal cannabis business but remains as a major shareholder. Greenfern’s share price was unchanged at 8.8c.
New Talisman Gold Mines, unchanged at 0.003c, announced a 1for10 share consolidation, effective from February 8.
Smiths City Group, in receivership since May 2020 and now called Ex SCGL, will be delisted from the NZX on February 9.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.09% to 34,086.04 points; S&P 500 increased 1.46% to 4076.6, having its best January since 2001 with a 6.18% rise; Nasdaq Composite rose 1.67% to 11,584.55, up 10.68% for the month.
Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index had increased 0.29% to 7498.6 points, a new 100day high, at 6pm NZ time yesterday.
At home, market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare increased 66c or 2.61% to $25.92; Fletcher Building recovered 18c or 3.55% to $5.25 after being marked down in the matching session the day before; Mercury Energy rose 23.5c or 3.92% to $6.23.
Auckland International Airport, with buying from overseas pension funds, continued to climb, gaining 12c to a threeyear high of $8.62. Its peak was $9.85, achieved on June 1, 2019.
Spark was up 7c to $5.275; Meridian Energy gained 7c to $5.40; Mainfreight collected 85c to $72.30; Chorus rose 16c or 1.91% to $8.52; a2 Milk added 11c to $7.52; Skellerup was up 12c or 2.25% to $5.45; ANZ increased 60c to $27.90.
The only leading stock pegged back was Ebos Group, down 90c or 2.09% to $42.10.
Stride Property was up 4c or 2.88% to $1.43; Serko rose 21c or 8.27% to $2.75; Napier Port increased 9c or 3.06% to $3.03; Arvida Group gained 2c or 1.72% to $1.18; Air New Zealand added 1c to 78.5c.
Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund increased 9c or 2.79% to $3.32; Vista Group added 3c or 2.07% to $1.48; Move Logistics was up 3c or 2.8% to $1.10; and Rakon gained 2c or 1.96% to $1.04.
In the energy sector, Contact gained 4c to $7.80; Vector was up 5c to $4.30; and Manawa was down 10c or 1.82% to $5.39.
Briscoe Group gave up 12c or 2.54% to $4.61; Seeka shed 10c or 3.03% to $3.20; Task Group declined 1.5c or 3.85% to 37.5c; Vital Healthcare Property Trust was down 4.5c or 1.88% to $2.35. —