NZ sharemarket ends week up nearly 1.7%

The New Zealand sharemarket shrugged off the United States tariffs concern and joined the Trump post-election rally with a 1.5% rise, driven by resurgent blue-chip stocks.

Friday, November 8th 2024, 6:30PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 gained strong momentum late morning, closing at 12,770.33, up 188.95 points and bang on 1.5%.

The index increased nearly 1.7% for the week and is now 8.4% ahead for the year. Trading was steady, with 29.1 million shares worth $126.05m changing hands.

'Market sentiment'

Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said the local market's reaction to Donald Trump's presidential victory was delayed.

“The interesting thing is how much the US rally has been driven by the retail and exchange-traded funds money rather than the smart (institutional) money. Market sentiment was helped by the Federal Reserve’s 25 basis points cut in the official cash rate,” he said.

Following September’s 0.5% reduction, the Fed lowered its overnight borrowing rate to a target range of 4.5% to 4.75%.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite raced to new highs after rising 0.74% to 5,973.10 points and 1.51% to 19,269.46, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat at 43,729.34 points.

The leading high-growth tech stocks were again supercharged, with Meta (Facebook) up 3.42% to US$591.61 (NZ$984.14), Nvidia increasing 2.24% to US$148.88, and Apple gaining 2.14% to US$227.49.

Local stocks

At home, blue chip stocks Fisher & Paykel Healthcare increased $1.23 or 3.38% to $37.63; Ebos Group was up $1.25 or 3.47% to $37.30; Chorus rose 25.5c or 2.95% to $8.885; Spark rebounded 8.5c or 2.88% to $3.04; a2 Milk added 12c or 2.1% to $5.83; and Mainfreight collected $1.80 to $72.80.

Summerset increased 29c or 2.37% to $12.55; Freightways was up 18c to $10.46; Skellerup added 10c or 2.11% to $4.85; SkyCity collected 3c or 2.21% to $1.39; Property for Industry gained 4.5c or 2.09% to $2.20; and 2 Cheap Cars was up 3c or 3.66% to 85c.

Colonial Motor, unchanged at $7.04, told shareholders at the annual meeting that the “six months we are currently in remains tough … this is an over-supplied, over over-competitive market where some of our competition is moving the metal just to keep cash flowing.”

Colonial said there are green shoots; the worst is over, and lower interest rates will solve all challenges as it works its way through cost reductions.

Briscoe Group gained 8c to $5.08 after reporting group sales of $546.1m for the 39 weeks ending Oct 27, just 0.51% less than the same period last year.

Including Labour Day, which fell outside the accounting period, the nine-month sales increased 0.53%, with homeware and sporting goods up 0.36% and 0.80%, respectively. Briscoe is expecting full-year net profit of $70m-$77m compared with $88m in the previous year.

The Warehouse, unchanged at $1.02, reported a 2.5% drop in group sales to $668m for the 13 weeks ending Oct 27 compared with the same period last year. Revenue, however, was up 5.9% from the previous quarter.

The Warehouse stores sales were $386.3m, down 2% and Noel Leeming $229.1m, down 2.1%.

“Our transition is underway, with our focus firmly on trading each of our core brands and refreshing key product ranges at better value,” the retailer said.

ANZ Group, unchanged at $35.20, reported full-year revenue of A$20.81 billion, down 2% and net profit of $6.53b. The level of bad debts was lower than provisioned for. Westpac was up 94c or 2.71% to $35.64.

Manawa Energy, down 10c or 1.85% to $5.30, recorded a half-year $3.3m net loss and a decline in operating earnings (Ebitdaf) from $43.6m to $34.2m because of the challenging market conditions, including record wholesale prices and provision of bad debt.

Revenue was up 40% to $305.64m, while production volumes were 188GWh or 17% lower than the previous corresponding period. Manawa is paying an interim dividend of 4c a share on Dec 6, and full-year ebitdaf is expected to be $95m-$115m.

Other gainers were Bremworth, rising 9.76c to 45c; Santana Minerals, up 5c or 7.3% to 73.5c; Solution Dynamics, improving 3c or 2.61% to $1.18; Pacific Edge, adding 0.009c or 6.16% to 15.5c; and Green Cross Health increasing 4c or 5.13% to 82c.

Tags: Market Close