NZ sharemarket has quieter day after yesterday's swings

The New Zealand sharemarket settled back into steady trading after large volumes and sharp price movements the day before, which included index changes and the sale of a nearly 15% shareholding in Precinct Properties.

Friday, March 1st 2024, 6:20PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell at the opening despite the Nasdaq Composite reaching a record close in the United States.

The NZX index was helped by a late rise and finished up 2.9 points or 0.02% to 11,744.39 after reaching an intraday low of 11,683.4.

The index ended a hectic week ahead by 0.2% and is down by the same amount for the year. There were 70 gainers and 65 decliners on the main board, with 36.16 million shares worth $115.86m changing hands, compared with $598.26m worth the day before.

The Nasdaq Composite, driven by the Magnificent 7 tech stocks, increased 0.9% to an all-time high of 16,091.92 points, beating the previous record of 16,057.44 set in November 2021.

The S&P 500 gained 0.52% to a new peak of 5096.27 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.12% to 38,996.39.

The increases marked the fourth straight positive month for Wall Street, and the Nasdaq rose 6.12% in February; S&P 500 up 5.17%; and Dow Jones gained 2.22%.

Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said the local market normalised after the heavy trading.

“The stand-outs were Meridian and Mercury reacting to an index change,” Goodson said.

Meridian increased its weighting in the MSCI Large Cap index and the day after, it was down 8c to $5.90. Mercury rose 19c or 2.84% to $6.87.

The Warehouse, down 3c or 2.26% to $1.30, and Oceania Healthcare, unchanged at 59c, fell out of the MSCI Small Cap Index because trading in their shares was too illiquid.

Precinct Properties was up 1.5c to $1.18 after its big day. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s Haumi Co sold its 14.9% stake, 237m shares at $1.10 a share (totalling more than $261m), and Accident Compensation Corp (ACC) disclosed it had increased its shareholding in Precinct to 9.2% from 7.9%.

Goodson said most of the NZ investment funds would have picked up shares, and Precinct will increase its weighting in the NZX index now that 100% of its shares are available for trading.

Among other property stocks, Investore was up 3c or 2.8% to $1.10, and Goodman Trust was down 5.5c or 2.46% to $2.185.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare gained 22c to $24.72; Tourism Holdings increased 7c or 2.12% to $3.37; Fletcher Building was up 9c or 2.2% to $4.19; and Steel & Tube improved 2c or 1.82% to $1.12.

Retirement village operator Summerset Group was down 5c to $11 after completing the $125m six-year bond offer carrying a 6.43% interest rate. The bonds will be issued on March 8.

Ryman Healthcare declined 11c to $4.53; Arvida Group gave up 2c or 2.06% to 95c; a2 Milk was down 8c to $6.12; Scales Corp shed 9c or 2.86% to $3.06; Skellerup Holdings decreased 7c to $4.23; and Vulcan Steel fell 15c or 1.81% to $8.15.

Vista Group was down 3c or 1.86% to $1.58; Seeka declined 6c or 2.11% to $2.79; Briscoe Group decreased 9c or 1.96% to $4.51; ikeGPS shed 2.5c or 5.21% to 45.5c; Move Logistics fell 5c or 9.09% to 50c; and NZ Rural Land was down 3c or 3.23% to 90c.

Used car dealer 2 Cheap Cars Group declined 3c or 3.66% to 79c after downgrading its full-year net profit guidance to $6.3m-$6.5m, from $6.8m because of higher-than-expected currency hedging losses with the NZ dollar strengthening against the Japanese yen.

NZ King Salmon Investments, unchanged at 29, has gained final government approval to establish the Blue Endeavour open ocean farm in the Cook Strait – nine years after first applying for consent.

It will be a world-first farming the King Salmon chinook species in the open ocean and has the capacity to produce 10,000 metric tonnes and the potential to generate $300m in revenue a year.

Tags: Market Close