NZ sharemarket higher as Gentrack leads way

New Zealand shares rose in heavy trading as index reweightings heightened activity in a week that had already been punctuated by some large investors repositioning their portfolios. Gentrack led the market higher.

The S&P/NZX index increased 37.77 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 9473.27. Within the index, 32 stocks rose, 10 fell, and eight were unchanged. Turnover was $407.1 million, of which Spark accounted for $64.2m and Contact Energy contributed $57.2m.

Greg Smith, head of research at Fat Prophets, said global investor sentiment seemed to have become relatively upbeat, with US markets at four-month highs and the likely delay to Brexit pushing out some uncertainty in financial markets.

“Weaker Chinese data this week seems to have been taken in its stride and generally the optimists are outweighing the pessimists,” he said.

The stock market operator extended the adjustment session of local trading to allow for the quarterly rebalancing of the S&P/NZX indices and the FTSE Russell index, in which some stocks are added and removed to the benchmarks for passive investment vehicles.

Sky TV shares were unchanged at $1.40,

Spark shares edged up 0.1 per cent to $3.625, and Contact was unchanged at $6.40.

Scales Corp rose 1.3 per cent to $4.80 on a volume of 2.6 million. Argosy Property gained 2.9 per cent to $1.26 on a volume of 1.2 million, more than twice its three-month average. Meridian Energy was unchanged at $3.85 on a volume of 4.5 million.

Gentrack led the NZX50 higher, up 4.3 per cent at $4.86 on a volume of 47,000, less than its usual 69,000 shares. Fellow software firm Pushpay Holdings also gained, up 0.3 per cent at $3.31.

Tourism Holdings rose 2.1 per cent to $4.87 on a smaller volume than usual of

105,000. Auckland International Airport gained 1.8 per cent to $7.94 on volume of 3.1 million and Air New Zealand fell 1.5 per cent to $2.32 on a volume of 2.3 million. It was the stock’s lowest close in almost two years. Vector gained 1.7 per cent to $3.52 on a volume of 735,000, compared to its

152,000 average.

Restaurant Brands New Zealand rose

3.4 per cent to $9.20, Fonterra Shareholders Fund units fell 1.8 per cent to $4.29. Synlait Milk gained 3.4 per cent to $11.19. Both Synlait and Fonterra are scheduled to report first-half earnings next week.

Metlifecare posted the biggest decline, down 2.3 per cent at $4.77.

Trade Me Group was unchanged at $6.39 and Kiwi Property Group rose 1.1 per cent to $1.425. A2 Milk fell 2 per cent to $13.93, Fletcher Building declined 0.4 per cent to $4.67.