NZ shares bounce with Wall St

New Zealand shares bounced on improved investor sentiment as share markets on Wall Street snapped out of a three-day correction.

Thursday, September 10th 2020, 5:52PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 72.67 points, or 0.6 percent, to 11,811.78. Within the index, 27 stocks rose, 18 fell and five were unchanged. Turnover was $183.7 million.

Global equity markets rebounded after experiencing aggressive selling in the past week, interrupted by Labor Day in the United States.

Wall Street indices rose about 2 percent each, with the Nasdaq Composite the best performer up 2.7 percent.

The local market followed the offshore lead, with broad based gains, as it has done for most of the week.

“They led us down and we are following them back up,” said Jeremy Sullivan, an investment adviser at Hamilton Hindin Greene.

With was no news or data to prompt the sell-off nor the bounce, the moves suggest there is still strong buying interest fuelled by central bank support, said Liz Kendall, a senior economist at ANZ.

Some of the stocks which had been sold the hardest posted the strongest recoveries today.

Mercury NZ led the market, climbing 4.8 percent to $5.28, just above Monday’s closing price.

Napier Port rose 4 percent to $3.63, slightly below where it started the week.

Ryman Healthcare followed the same pattern, rising 2.9 percent back to $13.70

Goodman Property Trust largely skipped the selloff but took the rally, rising 3.1 percent to $2.33.

The two market giants balanced each other out, A2 Milk Company rose 0.3 percent to $17.90 while Fisher & Paykel Healthcare dropped 0.2 percent to $33.55.

Sky Network Television disappointed some investors, falling 10.8 percent to 14.8 cents—the day’s biggest loss. The company raised its earnings guidance due to a faster return of sports than it envisaged in May, but the share price had been run up more than 20 percent ahead of the result.

“Just dropping back to where they were on Tuesday,” Sullivan said.

There was heavy retail interest in the stock, but an analyst's report from Macquarie on Monday had attracted some institutional buying as well.

A range of other stocks missed the rally, including travel stocks. Tourism Holdings fell 4 percent to $1.95, and Air New Zealand dropped 1.5 percent to $1.32 after saying it would ground its Boeing 777 fleet until at least September 2021.

Auckland International Airport was up 1.4 percent at $7.11.

Fisheries company Sanford fell 2.5 percent to $5.80 after announcing the resignation of its long serving chief executive.

The New Zealand dollar recovered all of Tuesday’s losses as the rout in equity markets faded and investors felt more confident buying riskier assets.

The kiwi dollar was trading 66.80 US cents at 5pm in Wellington, up from 66.24 cents yesterday.

The trade-weighted index was at 71.95 at 5pm, up from 71.49 yesterday. The kiwi traded at 91.87 Australian cents from 91.66 cents, 70.87 yen from 70.14 yen, 56.51 euro cents from 56.23 cents, 51.40 British pence from 51.08 pence, and 4.5679 Chinese yuan from 4.5364 yuan.

Tags: Market Close