Tourism Holdings leads NZ shares higher
New Zealand shares joined a global rally on optimism that the latest US delegation to Beijing will make meaningful progress in soothing the strained trade relations.
Tourism Holdings led widespread gains, SkyCity Entertainment Group fell after reporting a decline in firsthalf profit and a share buyback.
The S&P/NZX50 index rose 0.6 per cent to 9333.38.
Within the index, 36 stocks gained, 11 fell, and three were unchanged. Turnover was $180.2 million.
Investor sentiment was buoyed by the prospect of US policymakers avoiding another Federal government shutdown, and on optimism that US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will cut through some of the more intractable issues between the US and China.
“People are more optimistic on the trade front and US President Donald Trump has back-pedalled a bit on his wall,” said Greg Smith, head of research at Fat Prophets.
Rental RV operator Tourism
Holdings led the market higher, up 3.1 per cent at $4.69 on a smaller-thanaverage volume of 92,000. Z Energy gained 2.3 per cent to $6.14 on a lighter volume than usual of 655,000. Mercury NZ was up 0.9 per cent at $3.785 on a volume of 499,000, Meridian Energy gained 0.5 per cent to $3.76 on a volume of 1.4 million and Genesis Energy gained 0.3 per cent to $6.41 on a volume of 629,000.
SkyCity dropped to $3.89 on a volume of 2.4 million, compared to its 90-day average of 572,000. The casino operator reported an 11 per cent decline in net profit to $82.8m, in line with earnings guidance at the end of January. It also declared plans to buy back up to 5 per cent of its outstanding shares over the coming year.
Spark New Zealand was the most active stock, with a volume of 5.7 million shares. It rose 1 per cent to $4.095. Trade Me slipped 0.2 per cent to $6.36 on a volume of 4.4 million, and Fletcher Building gained 1.9 per cent to $5.26 on a volume of 2.6 million.
Of other stocks trading on volumes of more than a million shares,
Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund fell 0.6 per cent to $4.69, a2 Milk increased 0.9 per cent to $13.57,
Pushpay gained 1.6 per cent at $3.25,
Auckland International Airport was up 0.1 per cent at $7.56, and Kiwi Property Group fell 1.4 per cent to $1.43.
Outside the benchmark index,
Hallenstein Glasson Holdings gained 5.1 per cent to $4.35. Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand fell 0.7 per cent.