Market commentaries
WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares rose yesterday, led by a strong recovery in Sky Network Television after the payTV operator all but secured rugby broadcasting rights in a deal that will also bring NZ Rugby on as a substantial shareholder.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index increased 102.89 points, or 0.9%, to 11,026.60. Within the index, 29 stocks rose, 14 fell and seven were unchanged. Turnover was $115.3 million, of which Sky accounted for $14.6 million.
Sky jumped 19% to $1.06, unwinding much of last week’s savaging, after saying it had secured the rights to broadcast domestic and international rugby in New Zealand from 2021 to 2025.
Trading in Sky was heavy with 13.7 million shares changing hands, compared with its 90day average of 855,000. That was almost half the NZX50’s 29.5 million volume.
Spark New Zealand, which outbid Sky for NZ Cricket rights and is now livestreaming the Rugby World Cup, rose 1.1% to $4.51, with just 977,000 shares traded, less than a third of its 3.1 million average.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare hit a record $18.38, and ended the day at $18.32, up 7.7% on a volume of 1.4 million shares, more than twice its 533,000 average. The company raised earnings and revenue guidance after saying it got early US regulatory approval for its Vitera breathing mask.
Of other stocks trading on more than a million shares, Goodman Property Trust increased 0.2% to $2.225 and Ryman Healthcare rose 2.5% to $13.30.
Companies with global operations were among the day’s gainers. Ebos Group was up 1.7% at $24.91, Mainfreight increased 1.4% to $38.95 and Gentrack Group increased 1.1% to $5.31.
Utilities were among stocks to fall as investors targeted growth companies. Meridian Energy fell 1.6% to $5.225, Mercury NZ was down 1.4% at $5.50, Contact decreased 1.2% to $8.85 and Genesis declined 1.1% to $3.48.
Restaurant Brands New Zealand posted the day’s biggest fall, down 3.7% at $11.36, with 25,000 shares traded, less than its 40,000 average. Listed investment vehicle Kingfish, which is managed by Fisher Funds, yesterday said it sold its residual shares in Restaurant Brands after this year’s partial takeover, taking advantage of a high valuation in September.
Vista Group International was unchanged at $3.74 after saying it bought the remaining half of box office reporting platform Numero for an undisclosed and immaterial sum.
A The Australian sharemarket closed higher for a third day yesterday, playing catchup after the US and China struck a truce on tariffs after Friday’s close.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index rallied hard at the open but then gave up half of its gains later in the day to finish up 35.8 points, or 0.54%, at 6642.6 points, while the broader All Ordinaries closed up 36 points, or 0.54%, at 6757.9 points.
Energy shares were leading gains yesterday, up 2.9% as they benefited not just from the trade deal but also a spike in the price of oil. Santos surged 5.7% to $7.85 after Australia’s secondlargest independent oil and gas producer agreed to pay $A2.1 billion ($NZ2.25 billion) for ConocoPhillips’ northern Australia business. Woodside Petroleum gained 2.5%, Oil Search climbed 2.5% and Origin Energy rose 1.8%.
The tech sector was the secondbiggest gainer, up 1.7%, with machine learning dataset company Appen up 5.1% at $A22.59, printed circuit board software company Altium up 4.0% at $A33.38 and Afterpay up 2.8% at $A36.10.
Wealth platform Praemium spiked 18.9% to A53.5 cents after reporting its funds under administration rose 24% in the September quarter, to reach $A20 billion for the first time.
The financial sector advanced 0.7% as investors appeared to shrug off news that the competition watchdog would investigate why major lenders had not passed on the full extent of the central bank’s rate cuts to mortgage customers.
The big four banks were higher, with ANZ up 0.7% at $A27.67, Commonwealth up 0.4% at $A79.07, NAB up 0.6% at $A28.36 and Westpac up 0.5% at $A28.90.
Macquarie rose 1.4%, Janus Henderson climbed 5.4%, Hub24 rose 6.0%, Netwealth Group gained 4.3% and Clydesdale bank owner Cyby rose 12.1% to $A2.41 on optimism for a Brexit deal. In the heavyweight mining sector, BHP climbed 2.0% to $A36.53, Rio Tinto gained 2.2% to $A91.91 and Fortescue Metals rose 1.6% to $A8.95.
Goldminers were down an average of 5%, however, as the price of the precious metal dipped to around $US1487 ($NZ2356) an ounce after trading for days over $US1500. Newcrest fell 4.8%, Northern Star, Regis Resource and Evolution all dipped 5.0% and Silver Lake Resources fell 9.2%.
Telecom stocks and utilities both a took hit, after previously benefiting from uncertainty over trade, collectively falling 1.0 and 0.8% respectively.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 7.0% to $A17.08. Shopping centre owner HomeCo made its debut on the ASX following a $A325 million float, the biggest of the year, rising 11.9% from its initial public offering price.
The Aussie dollar is buying US67.83 cents, from US67.76 cents on Friday. — BusinessDesk/AAP