NZ sharemarket down, Oz and US stocks climb

Australian and United States stocks continued to climb but an uncertain New Zealand sharemarket shed nearly 0.5% as it looked ahead to next week’s decisive Reserve Bank of NZ meeting.

Thursday, July 4th 2024, 6:24PM

by BusinessDesk

After a solid morning, the S&P/NZX 50 Index slipped in the afternoon and closed at 11,746.66, down 44.26 points or 0.38%.

The index reached an intraday high of 11,8918.31 points. There was an even spread of 71 gainers and 67 decliners over the whole market on light trading of 27.66 million shares worth $77.91m.

Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index had risen 1.24% to a new high of 7,835.7 points at 6pm NZ time.

Greg Smith, head of retail with Devon Funds Management, said the local market was quite tepid and in need of a pep-up. It was waiting for the Reserve Bank meeting (next Wednesday) and its latest direction on monetary policy.

“There has been a lot of soft economic data lately, and consumer and business confidence is low. We don’t expect an interest rate cut, but the market will be looking for any glimmer of hope that the Reserve Bank will soften and come to the rescue of the economy.

“There is quite a divergence between central banks at present – Europe and Canada have cut their official rates, England is close to cutting, Australia may hike, United States is holding the line, and our Reserve Bank is one of the more hawkish,” Smith said.

The minutes from the last US Federal Reserve meeting showed an agreement between the policymakers that inflation was moving in the right direction but not quickly enough to lower rates yet.

They wanted greater confidence that inflation was moving sustainably towards 2%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices, nonetheless, continued to reach new heights, gaining 0.51% to 5,537.02 points and 0.88% to 18,188.3 respectively. Nvidia was up 4.57% to US$128.28 (NZ$210).

Local market

At home, Port of Tauranga gave up a lot of its gains from the day before, declining 25c or 4.72% to $5.05 after telling the market its full-year net profit would be reduced by $12.9m because of the law change for depreciation on commercial buildings, resulting in a one-off deferred tax expense.

The port company still expects a full-year operating profit of $95m-$107m.

Retirement village operator Summerset Group, down 3c to $9.47, reported 333 sales – 156 new and 177 resale – for the June quarter and total sales for the first half were a record. Settlements for the three months ending June increased 31% on the previous quarter and 22% for the year.

Smith said Summerset put in a strong performance against the backdrop of a challenging trading environment.

Fletcher Building declined 6c or 2.06% to $2.85; Mainfreight was down 55c to $68.30; Contact Energy decreased 13c to $9.02; Ryman Healthcare shed 8c or 2.3% to $3.40; and AFT Pharmaceuticals eased 9c or 2.96% to $2.95.

Infratil was down 13c to $11.05 after reporting the valuation of its 48.25% investment in CDC Data Centres had increased A$466m (NZ$512.19) and was now valued at A$4.159 billion-$4.94b, from A$3.7834b-$4.368b at the end of March.

Infratil said the latest valuation reflected CDC’s development pipeline capable of delivering 400MW for customers over the next four to five years.

Other decliners were Delegat Group falling 34c or 6.01% to $5.32; Restaurant Brands down 6c or 2.12% to $2.77; 2 Cheap Cars decreasing 2c or 2.44% to 80c; and Third Age Health shedding 4c or 2.48% to $1.57.

In the property sector, Vital Healthcare Property was down 4c or 2.22% to $1.76; Kiwi declined 2c or 2.4% to 81.5c; and Precinct shed 2.5c or 2.17% to $1.125.

Synlait Milk rebounded a further 1c or 4.35% to 24c; a2 Milk gained 14c or 1.95% to $7.32; ANZ Bank increased 50c to $31.30; PGG Wrightson recovered 4c or 2.11% to $1.94; and Tower added another 2.5c or 2.76% to 93c, climbing from 61c on February 13.

In the retail sector, Hallenstein Glasson collected 13c or 2.46% to $5.41; Briscoe Group was up 8c or 2.2% to $4.05; and The Warehouse increased 2c or 2.11% to 97c.

Ventia Services reached a new high of $4.30 after gaining 5c; Eroad rose 15c or 13.04% to a 10-month high of $1.30; NZME was up 3c or 3.26% to 95c; Radius Residential Care increased 2c or 10.81% to 20.5c; and CDL Investments improved 2.5c or 3.52% to 73.5c.

NZ Windfarms, up 0.001c to 14.7c, earlier told the market that it has agreed to a fixed price volume contract with Meridian Energy for 50% of the Te Rere Hau windfarm output from October to December this year and 100% output from January to March next year.

Tags: Market Close