Sharemarket follows global rise
NZX is the best performer on day dominated by US news
New Zealand shares gained, following global trends, with NZX and Ryman Healthcare continuing to rise. The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 24.87 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 7610.89. Within the index, 21 stocks rose, 16 fell and 13 were unchanged. Turnover was $182.5 million. The day’s gains followed international markets rising after US Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen’s comments to Congress overnight, in which she flagged that lower-thanexpected inflation will probably keep interest rate increases in check.
“It really took its lead off the Yellen t estimony, which was interpreted as dovish,” said Matt Goodson, managing director at Salt Funds Management.
“You’ve seen a bit of a rally in bond yields, which had been a key headwind for a number of names.
“It’s risk on in the equity markets for now, although I would say we’ve been very choppy from one day to the next of late.
“Volumes have been quite sporadic — with school holidays there are quite a few people away.”
NZX was the best performer, up 2.6 per cent to $1.18. It has gained 4.4 per cent this week and yesterday’s price is the highest it has traded since April 2014.
“There’s no particular reason. Turnovers this year in equities have been somewhat light,” Goodson said.
“The other issue is that it does particularly well out of IPOs.
“They haven’t been thick on the ground whereas its debt market has been a bit more active.
“It may be a repricing up towards the multiples of its peers overseas, though sometimes you read too much into moves on fairly small volumes.”
Westpac Banking Corp rose 1.5 per cent to $33, Auckland International Airport gained 1.5 per cent to $6.88, and Vital Healthcare Property Trust advanced 1.4 per cent to $2.22.
Ryman Healthcare rose 0.4 per cent to $9.03, a high since October 2016. The stock has soared 8.3 per cent with uninterrupted gains since last Wednesday.
“It’s been the subject of a quite remarkable surge over the past couple of days, seemingly out of nowhere, from one or maybe several large buyers seeking stock in the name,” Goodson said.
Fellow retirement village operator Metlifecare rose 1.3 per cent to $5.41 while Summerset gained 1.3 per cent to $4.76.
Vista Group International was the worst performer, dropping 1.7 per cent to $5.90, while Arvida Group fell 1.5 per cent to $1.29.
Outside the benchmark index, Pushpay gained 6.1 per cent to $1.75 after the close of a $25m bookbuild where they were sold at $1.51, an 8.5 per cent discount.
The company on Wednesday also raised its annualised committed monthly revenue (ACMR) target to US$100m, announced plans to list in the US within the next 36 months, and gave guidance of US$70m in revenue for the 2018 financial year, more than double 2017’s US$34m. —