New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 index rose for a third week, with widespread gains led by KMD Brands extending its rally as the retailer engages with a potential suitor and as Mainfreight’s earnings beat expectations.

Infratil was among the bigger drags in a broadly softer session on Friday, as the exit of Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang injected uncertainty into the artificial intelligence trade, even as Anthropic’s initial public offering was said to be six times oversubscribed.

Vista Group International was among the day’s biggest gainers after the cinema analytics firm signed Reading Cinemas to its cloud computing service, while Warehouse Group rallied on a widening of its first-quarter margins.

And the kiwi dollar remained subdued, even as bond yields followed oil prices higher, while the BNZ-BusinessNZ manufacturing gauge showed slower growth in industrial production and Real Estate Institute of New Zealand figures reported a further cooling in the housing market.

Friday drift

The NZX 50 fell 85.55 points, or 0.6%, to 14,173.68 on Friday, snapping three days of gains and trimming the weekly gain to 1.3%. Within the index, 41 stocks gained this week and nine declined.

Retailer KMD surged 21% this week in the biggest gain among the top 50 companies, with the retailer granting exclusive due diligence to US firm Bluestar Alliance for a potential takeover. Mainfreight climbed 5.6% this week after reporting a bigger increase in first-half earnings than expected, while Gentrack advanced 6.2%, Sanford rose 5.3%, NZX increased 5.3% and Turners Automotive Group climbed 5.6%.

Oceania Healthcare posted the biggest decline this week, falling 4.6%, while Serko dropped 4.1%.

“The fact that our political situation is still unresolved hasn’t had a large impact on our market,” said Peter McIntyre, an investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners. “We’re looking at a positive week after reaching an all-time high.”

The S&P/NZX 20 index fell 0.8% to 7,783.93 on Friday, with the futures contract untraded. Within the NZX 50, 25 stocks fell on Friday, 14 gained and 11 were unchanged.

Turnover across the main board was $122.2 million, of which Fisher & Paykel Healthcare accounted for $25.1 million as it ended the day unchanged at $48.48.

Stock markets across Asia were generally weaker, with South Korea’s Kospi down 0.5%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng falling 0.9% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index slipping 0.6% as investors digested the exit of Nvidia chief Huang and as Microsoft services were disrupted. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.8% in late trading, and China’s Shanghai Composite increased 0.2%.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Anthropic was six times oversubscribed, with prospective investors told they would get smaller allocations. Separately, Bloomberg reported Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla were progressing merger negotiations and could wrap up a deal as soon as December.

Checking the data

Infratil was one of the larger headwinds for the domestic market, falling 1.9% to $13.21, and joining declines in ASX-listed NextDC and DigiCo Infrastructure real estate investment trust.

Craigs’ McIntyre said the infrastructure investor’s earnings next week would come under close scrutiny.

“They ebb and flow with what’s happening in the AI sector overseas,” McIntyre said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how Nvidia opens up overnight and when it reports its earnings on Tuesday US time.”

Power companies were also a drag on the NZX 50, with Meridian Energy falling 2.1% to $5.70, Mercury NZ slipping 1.5% to $6.70, Contact Energy sliding 1.2% to $8.57 and Genesis Energy decreasing 0.8% to $2.39.

Gentrack posted the biggest decline on the benchmark index, falling 4.9% to $4.63, while Serko dropped 3.3% to $1.16.

Vista gained 4.5% to $2.78 in the biggest increase on the NZX 50 after the software firm said Reading Cinemas’ US, Australian and New Zealand sites would adopt the company’s operational excellence and Vista payments products over the coming year.

KMD rose 2.8% to $2.54, while Goodman New Zealand advanced 1.6% to $1.92.

The retirement village operators shrugged off REINZ figures showing a 23% slide in house sales in October from a year earlier and a 2.1% dip in house prices. Summerset Group Holdings dipped 0.8% to $6.35, while Ryman Healthcare was unchanged at $1.89 on a volume of 5.9 million shares, and Oceania Healthcare was unchanged at 63 cents.

Gareth Kiernan, chief forecaster at Infometrics, said October was a horror month for the housing market, with high petrol prices and an uncertain general election weighing on buyers.

“Given the lack of clear election result until at least the final vote count is announced on 27 November, this month is also likely to be a tough one for the housing market, particularly with Labour’s proposed capital gains tax still affecting the thinking of investors,” Kiernan said in a note.

Outside the NZX 50, Warehouse gained 5.8% to 73.5 cents, near a seven-month high, after it reported wider first-quarter margins, with sales up 0.7%.

The kiwi dollar traded at 55.45 US cents at 5pm in Auckland from 55.57 cents yesterday, and was up at 81.45 Australian cents from 81.17 cents. The yield on New Zealand’s 10-year government bond rose 9 basis points to 4.74%, as the prospect of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve and a bounce in oil prices weighed.

Meanwhile, the BNZ-BusinessNZ performance of manufacturing index fell 1.4 points to 54.9 in October, indicating activity was still growing, albeit at a slower pace.

Reporting by Paul McBeth.