Surge leads to biggest single-day rise in NZ sharemarket

The blue-chip stocks picked up a head of steam as the New Zealand sharemarket recorded its biggest single-day rise in nearly a year with a surge of more than 1.7%.

Thursday, November 2nd 2023, 6:33PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index had another strong afternoon after reaching a morning low of 10,850.92 and closed at 11,044.44, increasing 193.52 points or 1.78%.

The previous biggest single-day gain was 1.98% on Nov 11 last year. The index has now risen 2.80% over the past three trading days.

There were 94 gainers and 36 decliners over the whole market on volumes of 30.25 million share transactions worth $86.86m.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said: “There was a lot of green on the screen, and we haven’t seen that for a long time.

“The pricing of the New Zealand market has gone back to better levels in terms of valuation over the past few months, and it feels like some people are allocating capital back into the market.

“Certainly, a positive tone is emerging, and we may have seen the peak in long-term interest rates, with bond yields continuing to ease.”

The NZX followed another strong day on Wall Street after the US Federal Reserve held interest rates at present levels for the second straight time. The Fed funds rate remains in the range of 5.25-5.5%, albeit at a 22-year high, and chair Jerome Powell said monetary policy was sufficiently restrictive.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.67% to 33,274.58 points; the S&P 500 increased 1.05% to 4237.86; and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.64% to 13,061.47.

Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index had risen 0.86% to 6896.9 points at 6pm NZ time.

At home, Mainfreight continued its strong recovery, rising $1.75 or 3% to $60.10; Ebos Group was up $1.13 or 3.16% to $36.90; Fisher and Paykel Healthcare gained 40c or 1.9% to $21.50; and Spark added 45c to $5.07.

Chorus rose 30c or 4.23% to $7.39; Auckland International Airport was up 23c or 3.09% to $7.68; Fletcher Building gained 8c or 1.85% to $4.40; and a2 Milk increased 7c to $4.27.

Energy stock Meridian was up 8c to $4.97; Mercury surged 31.5c or 5.55% to $5.99; Genesis added 6.5c or 2.81% to $2.375; and Contact gained 4c to $7.91.

Leading bank ANZ Group gained 59c or 2.17% to $27.79, and Westpac rose 57c or 2.52% to $23.23.

The property sector also recovered. Vital Healthcare Trust increased 5c or 2.56% to $2; Argosy was up 2.5c or 2.38% to $1.075; Investore rose 5c or 4.27% to $1.22; Kiwi gained 2.5c or 3.25% to 79.5c; and Precinct added 2.5c or 2.26% to $1.13.

Briscoe Group gained 2c to $4.49 after reporting a 2.37% increase in third-quarter sales to $179.7m, with homeware gaining 1.32% to $109.1m and sporting goods 4.05% to $70.6m. Briscoe remained cautiously optimistic heading into the crucial final quarter. Total sales for the 39 weeks ending Oct 29 were $548.9m, up 1%.

Other gainers were Channel Infrastructure, up 4c or 2.8% to $1.45; Tourism Holdings, adding 8c or 2.45% to $3.35; and PaySauce, up 1.7c or 9.29% to 20c.

Transport and logistics software firm TradeWindow declined 2c or 7.55% to 24.5c after announcing another restructure involving 80 staff and full-year revenue guidance of $6m-$6.5m, down from the previous $7m-$8m.

Other decliners were Restaurant Brands, decreasing 18c or 4.7% to $3.65; Allied Farmers, shedding 4c or 5% to 76c; and 2 Cheap Cars, down 5c or 6.67% to 70c.

Tags: Market Close