Property, utility stocks in vogue as index gains

New Zealand shares rose in heavy trading late in the day as investors adjusted for the reweighting of several major indices. Utilities and property companies offering reliable dividends remained in vogue.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index increased 36.53 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 10,327.29. Within the index, 35 stocks rose, 11 stocks fell, and four were unchanged. Turnover was $294.7 million. Of that, A2 Milk accounted for $34.6m, Contact Energy $31.4m, and Spark NZ $26.9m. Some 62.1 million shares changed hands, about twice the 30.5 million 90-day average, with investors reworking their portfolios to cater to the quarterly rebalance of the S&P/NZX Indices and FTSE Russell. NZX extended the adjustment period by 15 minutes to cater for the heightened activity.

David Price, a broker at Forsyth Barr, said most investors were waiting for the index reweightings at the end of the day.

“The market’s just marking time ahead of what will be a relatively large change,” he said before trading closed.

Spark was the most traded stock on a volume of 6.8m shares, more than its 5.4m average. It fell 0.8 per cent to $3.96.

Utilities and property companies were among the most traded stocks, with Kiwi Property Group up 1.3 per cent at $1.61 on a volume of 5.3m shares. Meridian Energy rose 0.2 per cent to $4.73 on a volume of 5.1m shares, Precinct Properties lifted 2.4 per cent to $1.74 on 4.8m shares, and Contact Energy advanced 0.5 per cent to $7.52 on 4.2m.

A2 Milk fell 2 per cent to $14.02 on a volume of 2.5m shares, about three-times its average. The milk marketing firm noted an announcement by China’s State Administration of Market Regulation that it will increase its focus on supervision and enforcement of e-commerce rules.

Of other companies trading on volumes of more than 2m shares, Infratil jumped 3.8 per cent to $3.79, Fletcher Building increased 0.6 per cent to $5.43, Genesis Energy advanced 2.8 per cent to $3.29, Air New Zealand fell 0.2 per cent to $2.685, and

Auckland International Airport increased 0.4 per cent to $9.235.

Gentrack led the market higher, up 6.5 per cent at $6.03 on just 50,000 shares, about half its usual volume. Global investment house BlackRock emerged as a substantial shareholder in the utilities software developer yesterday, with a 5.1 per cent stake.

Newly-listed Cannasouth dropped 7.3 per cent to 38 cents and is down from the 50 cent price in its initial public offering. Notices to the stock exchange yesterday showed director Anthony Ho bought 50,000 shares for $20,500, or 41 cents each, on market during the company’s debut on Wednesday.