NZ shares come roaring back

New Zealand shares chased Wall Street higher as a sudden turnaround in market sentiment sent key international indices up as much as 2% overnight.

Wednesday, December 8th 2021, 6:25PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index jumped 258 points, or 2.1%, to 12,868.32. Turnover was $242 million.

While the world is still waiting for confirmation omicron is less severe – albeit more transmissible – than delta, investors have decided no news is good enough to start buying again.

“The ‘buy-the-dip’ mentality remains a feature of US equity markets, with the easing of omicron concerns leading to a strong 2.1% gain in the S&P 500,” said BNZ strategist Jason Wong.

Sky Network Television led the market higher for a second day after it won over equity analysts with a cost cutting exercise that delivered a major earnings upgrade. It climbed 14.6% to $2.36, its second day of double-digit gains.

Forsyth Barr raised its target price from $1.80 to $3 saying after five years of declining core subscriber revenues the broking firm was now expecting “modest growth”.

“Sky TV provided a bullish market update, meaningfully upgrading its ebitda and net profit expectations for financial year 2022,” said analyst Aaron Ibbotson.

Arie Dekker, Jarden’s head of research, hiked his target price to $2.42 and gave the stock an ‘overweight’ rating.

“More confidence in nearer term free cash flow on lower costs and the first signs of revenue stabilisation are significant,” he said in a note.

UBS also gave the stock a ‘buy’ rating with a $2.65 target price, but Macquarie had the most bullish view with a target price of $4.71.

Serko had an exceptionally strong bounce, climbing 7% to $6.90 today, having fallen almost 20% in recent weeks due to its capital raising and lower-than-expected earnings.

Kathmandu Holdings, another stock badly affected in recent sessions, also recovered 4.8% to $1.53. Pushpay Holdings was up 5.3% at $1.38, despite not being particularly affected by recent volatility.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare avoided being sold seriously as it tends to benefit from new outbreaks of covid-19, but the stock rallied today regardless. It closed up 3.5% at $32.99.

Even Goldman Sachs revealing it had sold a 2% stake in A2 Milk company wasn’t enough to hold the milk marketing firm back from the bounce, it climbed 1.6% to $5.89.

Arvida Group had one of the few declines today, falling 1.5% to $1.92.

The NZ dollar mounted a minor recovery as risk appetite improved. It was trading at 67.84 US cents today, up from 67.46 cents yesterday.

“The rebound in the NZD/USD looks a little unconvincing, with the kiwi still susceptible to additional USD strength and local interest rate curve flattening,” said ASB economist Mike Jones.

Tags: Market Close