Market commentaries

AUCKLAND: New Zealand shares rose to a record as the prospect of low interest rates for even longer stoked demand for companies offering regular income such as Meridian Energy and Mercury NZ. Synlait Milk extended its recovery from a weak firsthalf result earlier this week.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index climbed 89.68 points, or 0.9%, to a record 9550.99. Within the index, 36 stocks gained, 10 fell, and four were unchanged. Turnover was $106.7 million, with just five companies trading on volumes of more than a million shares.

Companies offering stable dividends remain in vogue among investors as the Federal Reserve’s flatter interest rate track continues to support yield stocks such as utilities and property companies.

‘‘The world is now in a seemingly benign and lowinterest rate environment,’’ Peter McIntyre, an investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners, said.

‘‘Low interest rates are like sugar for the market and we’ve seen that today.’’

The electricity generatorretailers were all beneficiaries, with Mercury hitting a record $3.80 and closing at $3.79, a 3.6% gain. Meridian also reached a record at $4.09. It closed at $4.08, up 3.2%, on a volume of 2.5 million shares. Contact Energy rose 2.6% to $6.60 on a volume of 2.2 million, having hit a 10year high of $6.64 during the day. Genesis Energy was up 2.4% at $2.96 and was another to break new ground at $2.97.

Trustpower increased 1.4% to $6.38, and its cornerstone shareholder Infratil was up 2.5% at $4.035.

Synlait Milk led the market higher, up 5.1% at $10.53. The milk processor is bouncing back from a 14% slump on Wednesday when it unexpectedly reported a drop in firsthalf earnings. Air New Zealand rose 4% to $2.32 and is another stock that has been under pressure since it issued a profit warning in February.

A2 Milk increased 0.7% to $13.81 on a smaller volume than usual of 628,000 shares. Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund units rose 0.5% to $4.22.

Spark New Zealand was the most active stock with volume of 3 million, less than its 5.6 million threemonthly average. It rose 1.1% to $3.58.

Sky Network Television increased 0.7% to $1.36 on a volume of 1.5 million. It hired a Deloitte partner to fill in as an interim chief financial officer while it finds a permanent replacement for veteran Jason Hollingworth. Separately, ACC’s investment arm emerged as a substantial shareholder in the payTV operator.

Auckland International Airport increased 0.5% to $7.885 on a volume of 1.1 million.

Vector decreased 0.3% to $3.55 after it was fined almost $3.6 million for breaching its reliability standards in the 2015 and 2016 regulatory periods.

Summerset Group posted the biggest decline on the day, down 2.4% at $6.51.

Wellington International Airport, which is controlled by Infratil, set the interest rate on its $125 million, 11year bonds at 4%. The rate will reset after six years. The notes will list on the NZX debt market.

A Australian shares finished the week with a rally led by the big banks and market heavyweight CSL.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed yesterday up 28 points, or 0.45%, to 6195.2 points, while the broader All Ordinaries was up 27.4 points, or 0.44%, at 6280.9.

‘‘We had a good run in the morning and as you go into the afternoon there’s a bit of profittaking,’’ Blue Ocean Equities analyst Mathan Somasundaram said. ‘‘Overall it’s a positive day.’’

Healthcare led gainers, up a collective 1.21%, with global pharmaceutical company CSL up 1.52% to $197.19. Most sectors were up, aside from mining and telecom shares, which were down slightly. The big banks were all up: Westpac gained 0.68% to $26.51; NAB was up 0.52% to $25.09; CBA gained 0.42% to $71.43; and ANZ rose 0.26% to $26.52.

BHP was down 0.19% to $37.61 but most other miners were up, with Rio Tinto gaining 0.72% to $94.17.

Gold miners were down, however, as the price of the precious metal dropped, and shares in St Barbara crashed 29.25% to $3.29, a 14month low, after the gold miner said continued production at its historic Gwalia mine in Western Australia would have to rely on trucking ore rather than hoisting it out.

Suncorp was up 1.9% to $13.44 after it said shareholders would receive a special dividend of 8.0 cents per share from the proceeds of its Australian life insurance sale. — BusinessDesk/AAP