NZ sharemarket lifts off after Auckland Airport numbers

Auckland International Airport and the tourism sector are benefiting from increased visitor numbers – the best in five years – as the New Zealand sharemarket posted a gain of nearly 0.5%.

Wednesday, January 15th 2025, 6:50PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index steered upwards throughout the day and closed at 12,943.57, gaining 59.19 points or 0.46%.

The index is down 1.3% for the year to date.

Trading was steady, with 25.8 million share transactions worth $97.46 million, and there were 79 gainers and 59 decliners on the main board.

‘A period of volatility’

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said the low liquidity meant the market was bouncing around.

“There is a period of volatility with the release of the US consumer price index [CPI] overnight and its impact on interest rate reductions and the start of the latest US reporting season.

“Four banks and BlackRock investment firm are kicking the season off,” Solly said. The December US CPI is expected to be an increase of 0.3% for the fifth consecutive month, showing disinflation is slowing.

The producer price index (PPI) was softer than expected, with a rise of 0.2% in December instead of the forecast of 0.4%. Core PPI, which excludes food and energy, was flat.

Economists there said the CPI will gauge whether the Federal Reserve is succeeding at bringing annual inflation close to its 2% target, which would allow the central bank to ease its interest rate policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.52% to 42,518.28 points; S&P 500 gained 0.11% to 5,842.91; and Nasdaq Composite was down 0.23% to 19,044.39.

‘Positive tone’

At home, Auckland International Airport increased 23c or 2.72% to $8.68 after reporting the highest number of international passengers since the start of the covid pandemic in January 2020.

In December, international passengers, including transit, reached 1.028 million, up 6% compared with the same month in 2023. Domestic passengers were steady at 745,352, while the total numbers through the Auckland airport were 1.77 million, up 3%.

Auckland Airport told the market that Australian and NZ passport holders accounted for 53% of all international passenger movements during December. NZ passenger numbers are now 4% ahead of pre-covid levels.

Solly said it was a positive update from Auckland Airport, and travellers may be picking up on the weakness of the NZ dollar.

“The whole tourism sector is benefiting from the positive tone out of the airport.”

Other stocks

Tourism Holdings gained 7c or 3.54% to $2.05, and Millennium and Copthorne Hotels NZ rose 10c or 5.88% to $1.80.

The NZ dollar was trading at US56.06c following its recent low of 55.67c against the American greenback – a year ago, the kiwi was at US61.5c.

Summerset Group increased 30c or 2.36% to $13; Contact Energy was up 16c or 1.73% to $9.39; Fletcher Building gained 8c or 2.81% to $2.93; Spark added 6c or 2.08% to $2.95; and Mercury Energy collected 8.5c to sit at $6.05.

Sky TV rose 10c or 3.77% to $2.75 on speculation of settling the rugby broadcasting rights. Solly said there’s chat about Sky negotiating a better package and thus providing better returns.

Among leading banks, ANZ was up 46c to $32.32, and Westpac added 50c to $35.30.

Scales Corp gained 7c or 1.69% to $4.20; Winton Land was up 4c or 2.04% to $2; and NZ King Salmon Investments improved 1c or 4.55% to 23c.

In the retail sector, Briscoe was down 10c or 2.07% to $4.72; KMD Brands declined 1.5c or 3.41% to 42.5c; and Hallenstein Glasson was up 8c to $8.15.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 57c to $37.72; Ebos Group eased 24c to $36.30; Comvita declined 2c or 2.5% to 78c; Investore decreased 2c or 1.72% to $1.14; Asset Plus shed 1c or 4.76% to 20c; and Port of Tauranga was down 10c to $6.25.

Vista Group tumbled 14c or 4.5% to $2.97; T&G Global fell 10c or 6.06% to $1.55; NZME shed 3c or 2.78% to $1.05; Eroad eased 2c or 1.83% to $1.07; Rakon declined 2c or 3.23% to 60c; and TradeWindow was down 0.004c or 2.06% to 19c.

Channel Infrastructure, up 1c to $1.93, told the market that throughput for the quarter ending December was ahead of the forecast by 10 million litres (909 million litres) and 1% above the same quarter in 2023 at 900 million litres.

Channel said despite the current economic environment and aircraft availability, jet fuel throughput was up 3% in the fourth quarter, and the year-on-year throughput increased by 12%. Diesel, up 2%, and petrol, down 3%, remained relatively stable.

Payroll firm PaySauce rose 1c or 4.76% to 22c after reporting a 14% increase in recurring revenue in the quarter ending December, with processing fees contributing $1.7m, up 19% compared with the previous corresponding period. Customer numbers grew 11% or 807 to 8127 for the software as a service company.

Tags: Market Close