Santa Claus rally hits record
Freightways the standout, Fletcher gains
New Zealand shares rose to a record, led higher by Freightways and Comvita, as a2 Milk Co and Fletcher Building rebounded from recent selling ahead of the Christmas holiday.
The S&P/NZX50 Index gained 57.05 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 8401.2. Within the index, 34 stocks rose, 13 fell and three were unchanged. Turnover was $125 million.
“There’s a strong Santa Claus rally that’s ongoing and people looking to bed in the gains,” said Shane Solly, director at Harbour Asset Management. “It’s a pretty positive run into the Christmas period, topping off what’s been a positive year. At the start of the year, not many people would have expected a 22 percent gain.”
Freightways
was the best performer, rising 3.5 per cent to $7.78, and rose 3 per cent to $8.24.
rose 2.1 per cent to $5.34. The Wellingtonbased retirement village developer and operator lifted full-year earnings guidance on strong resales volumes and margins as well as good margins on new occupation right sales.
“That’s a pretty helpful upgrade, really highlighting that there is some resilience in the broader New Zealand economy,” Solly said.
rose 2.3 per cent to $8.15.
Comvita Summerset Group Holdings A2 Milk
“It has really been recovering from the transitional activity around the movement from the ASX 200 index to ASX 100 index late last week,” Solly said. “It fell late last week when it was removed from the ASX 200 index, which tends to have quite a broad following.”
Fletcher Building Tourism Holdings Z Energy Airport ikeGPS
gained 1.6 per cent to $7.72.
“It’s had quite a strong recovery from its recent low of $6.73 back at the end of November. There’s anticipation of recovery from the new management team,” Solly said.
was the worst performer, down 1.9 per cent to $5.30.
dropped 1.4 per cent to
Auckland International
$7.93 and fell 1.3 per cent to $6.61. Outside the benchmark index, shares jumped 19 per cent to 37c after the company announced a $200,000 contract with Canada’s largest communications company and said it might exceed previous sales guidance. The contract with Bell Canada involves the laser measurement toolmaker’s Ike 4 device, which is the biggest contributor to FY18 financial targets for revenue growth.
Revenue from the first phase deployment of the system will be about $200,000, it said.
was unchanged at 87c. The High Court has rejected NZME and Fairfax New Zealand’s attempt to overturn a Commerce Commission ruling against a proposed merger of the country’s dominant newspaper publishers and upheld the regulator’s right to rely on the shrinking number of voices in the market.
NZME