Market commentaries

WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares rose as investors played catchup to the Australian market which rose sharply on Thursday while the local market was closed for Waitangi Day.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 156.8 points, or 1.4%, to 11,760.88. Within the index, 31 stocks rose, 17 fell and two were unchanged. Turnover was $219.8 million.

Overnight, global equities rebounded on the news that China’s Ministry of Finance would halve additional tariffs levied against 1717 United States goods and following betterthanexpected US corporate earnings results and data.

Despite no conclusive signs the tide has turned against coronavirus, global markets have taken on a bolder mood regarding risk.

Matthew Goodson, director of Salt Fund Management, said the local market was catching up to the Australian S&P/ASX 200 Index which closed up 1.1% on Thursday.

‘‘We were closed yesterday during a strong up day, so this is a period of catchup,’’ he said.

A new wave of coronavirus anxiety dampened markets across Asia, but had not filtered through to New Zealand which was effectively running a day behind the region.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1% and Shanghai’s Composite Index was down 0.6%.

Kathmandu led the market higher, rising 12.8% to $3.44 on an aboveaverage volume of 1.6 million shares, following an announcement that sales rose 1.5%, although margins declined.

Mr Goodson said investors had been selling the stock as there was some nervousness about how the brand had performed during Christmas trading, since rival brand Macpac had been affected by the Australian bushfires.

‘‘Kathmandu seems to have delivered moderate samestore sales growth, albeit at the expense of a little bit of gross margin,’’ he said.

‘‘So a risk some investors have been fearing has been taken off the table.’’

Another stock with strong links to the Australian market, a2 Milk, rose 5% to $15.36 on a volume of 823,000 shares.

Mr Goodson said a2 Milk, which is also listed on the ASX, had big gains in Australia on Thursday, which was bringing the stock higher locally.

Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund fell 1.3% to $3.85 and Synlait Milk fell 1.5% to $8.13.

Tourism stocks bounced yesterday, Auckland International Airport rising 2.9% to $8.75 on an aboveaverage volume of 3.3 million shares, Air New Zealand rose 2% to $2.80, SkyCity Entertainment Group rose 0.8% to $3.62 on more than 10 times its 90day average volume trading, almost 5 million shares and Tourism Holdings held at $3.

Utilities were mostly strong. Meridian Energy rose 3.2% to $5.52, Mercury NZ rose 4% to $5.30 and Contact Energy rose 0.4% to $7.23.

Infratil fell 1.5% to $5.45, letting go of some of Wednesday’s gain from the announcement the company was investing in European green energy.

The Australian sharemarket snapped its threeday winning streak, with broad losses across most sectors.

The S&P/ASX200 index finished Friday down 26.6 points, or 0.38%, at 7022.6, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 27.3 points, or 0.38%, to 7121.4.

Energy was the worstperforming sector, falling 1.7% after China’s largest liquid natural; gas importer declared force majeure and refused to take delivery on contracts.

Beach Energy was down 4.0%, Woodside Petroleum fell 1.5% and Santos dropped 1.7%.

The heavyweight mining sector was also down, BHP falling 2.0% to $38.77, Rio Tinto down 0.7% to $98.43 and Fortescue Metals down 3.3% to $10.85. — BusinessDesk/AAP