NZ sharemarket ends week up 1.5%

The New Zealand sharemarket ended the week with a 1% surge, fuelled by banking and building materials takeover activity in Australia and the bull market on Wall Street.

Friday, March 8th 2024, 6:34PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index momentarily reached a mid-morning low of 11,786.35 but then climbed steadily to close at 11,923.72, up 119.79 points or 1.01% – its highest close in five weeks.

The index gained 1.5% for the week and is now up 1.3% so far this year.

There were 94 gainers and 33 decliners over the whole market on volumes of 26.06 million share transactions worth $123.91m.

Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said the market took leads from the United States and Australia, which traded strongly. Merger and acquisition activity was continuing to light up the Australian market.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index has risen 1.04% to a new high of 7844.3 points at 5.45pm NZ time.

The Australian market came alive with a $6 billion takeover offer by Nationwide Building Society to buy Australian securities exchange-listed (ASX) Virgin Money UK, which climbed 32.7% to A$4.075 (NZ$4.37).

Building materials company CSR and cement maker Boral are also involved with billion-dollar takeover bids.

On Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.51% to 16,237.38 points; the S&P 500 was up 1.03% to 5,157.36; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.34% to 38,791.35.

The Virgin Money activity spurred fellow banks listed on the NZ market. ANZ was up 65c or 2.08% to $31.95; Westpac increased 76c or 2.64% to $29.60; and Heartland Group gained 5c or 3.97% to $1.31.

Fletcher Building added 12c or 2.87% to $4.30 following reports that it is holding mediation talks in Western Australia over the Iplex pipe issue.

Goodson said it’s strange that the leaking pipes were only in Western Australia and not in other states. It might be a case of installation, but it would be a good sign if Fletcher can reach some outcome and avoid the worst situation of a product recall, which would be expensive.

Ebos Group was up 57c to $36.90; a2 Milk climbed a further 20c 3.16% to $6.53; Chorus gained 17.5c or 2.22% to $8.05; Comvita increased 9c or 4.04% to $2.32; Freightways collected 16c or 1.91% to $8.54; and Gentrack added 12c to $7.92.

Market leader Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 42c to $24.88. Chair Scott St John is retiring from the role in August after four years and will be replaced by fellow director Neville Mitchell, who joined the board in 2018. St John first joined the board in 2015.

In the energy sector, Mercury rose another 9.5c to $7.10, and Meridian was up 7.2c to $5.96.

Skellerup Holdings was up 10c or 2.3% to $4.45; Vulcan Steel increased 19c or 2.35% to $8.27; Steel & Tube gained 2c or 1.79% to $1.14; Vista Group was up 6c or 3.7% to $1.68; and Bremworth rose 4.5c or 9.28% to 53c.

Tourism Holdings was up 8c or 2.4% to $3.42; Serko increased 10c or 2.5% to $4.10; NZ Rural Land Co collected 3c or 3.33% to 94c; Allied Farmers gained 2c or 2.56% to 80c; and NZX added 2c or 1.98% to $1.03.

Port of Tauranga was down 12c or 2.25% to $5.22; NZME dipped 2c or 2.17% to 90c; My Food Bag declined 0.009c or 6.72% to 12.5c; and Blackpearl Group decreased 3c or 5% to 57c.

Rakon was up 1c to $1.29 as it continues to consider a takeover offer, understood to be Skyworks Solutions, a $US16b California-based semiconductor company.

The non-binding offer is $1.70 a share. TruScreen Group, unchanged at 2.1c, is undertaking clinical evaluation trials in Indonesia and Kenya for its cervical screening method.

Tags: Market Close