Market commentaries

WELLINGTON: The S&P/NZX 50 Index broke new ground as investors await the signing of the preliminary USChina trade deal. Gentrack slumped as a potential major customer backed out of a deal.

The NZX50 rose as high as 11,693.46 and ended the day at 11,676.67, up 51.54 points, or 0.4%. Within the index, 28 stocks rose, 16 fell, and six were unchanged. Turnover was $181.3 million.

China Vice Premier Liu He was scheduled to sign the first stage of the trade agreement in Washington overnight last night, although US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the US would keep tariffs in place until the second tranche was signed.

‘‘The clearing of trade clouds is a key factor in the recent stronger performances in risk assets,’’ CMC chief markets strategist Michael McCarthy said.

‘‘However, event risk over the next 24 hours is significant, and there was little appetite to push shares and industrial commodity prices any higher.’’

New Zealand, Australian and Vietnamese markets were the only ones in positive territory across Asia as investors weighed up Mnuchin’s comments.

The local market was led higher by companies paying reliable dividends, which are a hallmark of the NZX50. Kiwi Property Group rose 2.3% to $1.57 on a volume of 1.9 million shares, Argosy Property rose 1.8% to $1.42, and Goodman Property Trust was up 1.8% at a record $2.30.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, New Zealand’s secondbiggest listed company, rose 1.7% to $22.22 on a volume of 1.4 million shares.

Gentrack sank 26.7% to $2.89, the lowest since August 2016, and was the most traded stock on a volume of 4.7 million shares. It typically trades on a volume of 178,000.

The utilities software developer warned that market conditions were worse than expected and that British electricity firm E.ON had decided to suspend plans to roll out Gentrack’s billing platform. The company said it will update its earnings guidance in the next week.

Meridian Energy increased 0.2% to $5.16 with 1.8 million shares traded. Meridian’s South Island hydro lakes saw more than twice the usual water inflows in December and its Waitaki catchment storage was 136% of historical average at the end of December.

National electricity demand was up 4.9% in December on a year earlier while Meridian’s retail sales volumes for the month were 45% higher than a year earlier. Meridian said most of the rainfall in the South Island was west of the divide, so agricultural demand for electricity to run irrigation systems was very strong.

Contact Energy fell 1.2% to $7.34 on a volume of 1.1 million, while Genesis Energy rose 1.9% to $3.23. Mercury NZ increased 1% to $5.25.

Metlifecare fell 0.2% to $6.88, still shy of its $7 takeover offer, on a volume of 3.1 million shares.

Of other companies trading on volumes of more than a million shares, Fletcher Building fell 0.4% to $5.28, Spark New Zealand decreased 1% to $4.505, Summerset Group increased 0.1% to $8.72, Z Energy rose 1.6% to $4.59, and Auckland International Airport rose 1% to $9.08.

The Australian sharemarket closed higher for the eighth time in 10 sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index coming tantalisingly close to breaking the 7000 mark.

Ultimately, the index finished on Wednesday at 6994.8 points, up 32.6 points, or 0.47%.

Australia’s broader All Ordinaries index closed up 35.5 points, or 0.5%, at 7113.5 points.

Mr Safehaven assets like gold, bonds and property gained yesterday, as did growth assets like healthcare, energy and tech stocks.

‘‘The market’s really starting to polarise . . . It’s getting more bullish at one end, and more bearish at the other end,’’ Mr McCarthy said.

Cryptocurrencies were up, with Bitcoin trading at a twomonth high.

Energy stocks were the biggest gainers, collectively up 0.7% as Beach Energy gained 2.6% and Santos climbed 1.0%.

The banks were all higher, with ANZ climbing 0.2% to $25.25, NAB up 0.4% to $25.17, Westpac up 0.5% to $24.69 and Commonwealth rising 0.6% to $63.66.