Market commentaries
WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares rose, led by Contact Energy and Meridian Energy as heightened uncertainty in global markets bolsters the attraction of defensive stocks offering stable dividends.
The S&P/NZX 50 index increased 10.92 points, or 0.1%, to 8670.94. Within the index, 19 gained, 26 fell, and five were unchanged. Turnover was $124.9 million.
Asian stock markets were mixed with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 0.1% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index gaining 0.2% in afternoon trading as investors weigh up the impact of heightened trade tensions between the US and China and Britain’s delayed Brexit vote in the face of widespread opposition.
Rickey Ward, NZ equity manager at JBWere, said that environment of uncertainty makes New Zealand’s share market relatively attractive given the prevalence of defensive stocks such as the generatorretail power companies, property investors, and utilities.
Contact led the market higher, up 3% at $5.87 on a slightly bigger than usual volume of 981,000. Meridian gained 2.2% to $3.29 on 2.6 million shares, about twice its average volume, and Genesis Energy increased 0.8% to $2.53 on a volume of 1.2 million. Goodman Property Trust rose 0.3% to $1.57 on 1.3 million shares.
Spark New Zealand was up 0.1% at $4.275 on a volume of 3.4 million, the busiest stock on the index. SkyCity Entertainment Group fell 1.7% to $3.45 on a volume of 2.8 million, compared to its 90day average of 704,000.
Of other companies trading on volumes of more than 1 million,Auckland International Airport fell 2% to $6.96 and Z Energy decreased 0.2% to $5.67.
Restaurant Brands New Zealand rose 2.5% to $8.50 in slightly busier activity of 309,000. The fast food operator’s board yesterday said they will back a partial takeover bid from Mexico’s Finaccess Capital at $9.45 for threequarters of the company. An independent valuation by Grant Samuel put a price of $8.15$8.92 a share.
Scales Corp fell 2.5% to $4.24 on twice its average trading volume at 122,000.
Arvida Group decreased 1.5%, or 2c, to $1.28 after shedding rights to a 1.3cpershare dividend.
Vital Healthcare Property Trust fell 1.4% to $2.05. The real estate investor’s manager has hired a firm to lobby for investor votes ahead of the annual meeting on December 20, where rebel shareholders are seeking to change the terms of the management contract and install a director to its board.
Outside the benchmark index, PGG Wrightson fell 3.8% to a 23month low 51c. NZAXlisted BurgerFuel Worldwide was unchanged at 68c after saying it had hired KPMG to undertake a strategic review of the business.
Mining and healthcare stocks lifted the Australian sharemarket higher, but the gains did little to recover the significant losses inflicted during Monday’s trading.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 23.4 points, or 0.42%, at 5575.9 at 1615 AEDT yesterday, while the broader All Ordinaries rose 0.42%.
Major miners lifted the materials sector higher on stronger industrial metal and commodity prices, with BHP climbing 1.4% to $31.72 and Rio Tinto rising 1.3% to $72.88.
South32 and Fortescue Metals were 1.6 and 1.5% higher respectively, while BlueScope lost 0.4%.
Healthcare shares were the strongest performer on the indices with benchmark CSL up 2.1% to $180.38, while ResMed was particularly buoyant, rising 3.7% to $15.60.
AThe financial sector was choppy throughout trading and closed flat, but the big four lenders all finished in the black. Westpac had the strongest gains, up 0.8% to $25.06, and Commonwealth the weakest, up 0.2% to $68.43.
Macquarie was 0.1% lower, while QBE Insurance tumbled more than 4% to $9.96 after flagging a threeyear, $130 million costcutting programme, as well as greater reinsurance for extreme and catastrophic events.
Energy stocks reversed earlier gains following subdued oil prices, with Woodside, Oil Search, Santos, and Caltex posting losses of between 0.6% and 1.1%.
New Hope and Whitehaven, however, jumped 7.9% and 3.6% respectively on stronger coal prices.
The Australian dollar edged lower as the greenback firmed against the pound, buying US72.04c at 1630 AEDT, down from US72.17c on Monday. — BusinessDesk/AAP