Sharemarket misses regional rally; NZX offline - again

New Zealand shares missed a regional rally as the strong kiwi dollar stymied strong offshore leads, while the NZX’s website went offline in the afternoon.

Tuesday, September 15th 2020, 6:08PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index decreased 19.79 points, or 0.2 percent, to 11,770.75. Within the index, 20 stocks fell, 26 rose and four were unchanged. Turnover was $148.1 million.

Trading may have been slowed by the NZX’s website coming offline for much of the afternoon in similar circumstances to the cyber-attacks in August.

Those unable to access the website were redirected to an alternate site which hosted the last 200 market announcements, allowing trading to continue.

Global investor sentiment solidified after the wobbles of last week and equity markets globally made some recovery on positive vaccine news and economic data.

Asian markets rose as China’s industrial output, retail sales and fixed-asset investments all exceeded economists’ estimates in August showing Asia’s largest economy was strengthening. MSCI’s Asia Index, excluding Japan, rose 0.5 percent.

US investors took to the news that AstraZeneca resumed trials of its covid-19 vaccine and Pfizer saying its vaccine could be distributed in the US this year. Wall Street’s three top indices each added more than 1 percent on Monday night trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining 1.9 percent.

Peter McIntyre, an investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners, said the local market was unusually muted considering the offshore leads.

“The economic data out of China might’ve been a reason for the market to be higher than what it is,” he said.

“It seems like Australia and New Zealand are laggards, our dollars are stronger as well so that may have had an influence on the market today.”

The Australian dollar rose after the Reserve Bank of Australia released its meeting minutes, which did not signal any imminent policy action.

Traders had been speculating that a further cut to the cash rate or other quantitative easing was likely, which had led to some selling.

The kiwi dollar also rallied with its Aussie cousin, compounded by weakness in the greenback as the hope for a vaccine improved appetite for riskier currencies.

The kiwi was trading at 67.23 US cents at 5pm in Wellington, from 66.95 cents yesterday, and at 91.74 Australian cents down from 92 cents shortly before the minutes were released and from 91.91 yesterday.

The trade-weighted index was at 72.08 at 5pm, from 72.07 yesterday. The kiwi traded at 71.04 yen from 70.98 yen, 52.25 British pence from 52.23 pence, and 4.5618 Chinese yuan from 4.5726 yuan. It was unchanged at 56.50 euro cents.

Exporter Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which counts the US as its biggest market, fell 1.7 percent to $32.63, while A2 Milk Co—which exports mostly to China—rose 2 percent to $18.08.

SkyCity Entertainment Group led the market, dropping 2.3 percent to $2.92.

New Zealand Refining fell 3.1 percent to 62 cents and Z Energy fell 1.9 percent to $2.65.

Heartland Group Holdings completed a 30-year A$142 million securitisation backed by its Australian reverse mortgage business and funded by offshore institutional investors.

Shares in the company rose 1.7 percent to $1.17, while the Australian listed banks fell. Westpac Banking Corp was down 0.9 percent at $18.25 and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group dropped 1.5 percent to $18.93.

Air New Zealand rose 0.7 percent to $1.355 after the airline said it had sold more than 110,000 seats on Monday, more than three times the pre-covid usual.

The airline marked the government’s removal of physical distancing by releasing 180,000 of its cheapest fares, with 160,000 of these available for under $50 which drove the record sales.

This clearly shows Kiwis are keen to get out and travel around Aotearoa, Air NZ chief executive Greg Foran said.

Auckland International Airport rose 0.7 percent to $7.10.

Traded was halted in Eroad shares after Australian media reported they were preparing a capital raise across the ditch. They last traded at $4.35.

Tags: Market Close