NZX 50 extends rally as Meta’s Muse charms markets; KMD hits 2-mth high

New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 index joined a rally across Asia, with tech companies buoyed by renewed appetite for the artificial intelligence trade amid the popularity of Meta Platforms’ new Muse agent.

Data centre investor Infratil was among the bigger tailwinds for the bourse, with heavyweight Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fuelling gains, while KMD Brands led the NZX 50 higher ahead of its annual result on Wednesday.

The power companies were mixed after finance minister Nicola Willis played down the prospect of a National-led government breaking up the generation and retail arms of the energy firms, while stock market operator NZX shrugged off news that BlackBull Markets wasn’t pressing ahead with a listing.

And in the smaller end of the exchange, WasteCo and Metro Performance Glass held their annual meetings, while Rua Bioscience unveiled a small capital raising.

Return of the agent

The NZX 50 rose 54.28 points, or 0.4%, to 13,875.48, with 29 stocks gaining, 18 declining, and three unchanged. The S&P/NZX 20 index increased 0.3% to 7,658.79, while the futures contract was untraded.

Turnover across the main board was $106.8 million, of which F&P Healthcare accounted for $15.5 million as the country’s biggest listed company rose 1% to $44.98.

Stocks across Asia followed Wall Street higher, with Meta surging 11% after its Muse agent topped Apple’s App Store and revived investors’ appetite for the AI trade, with Advanced Micro Devices cracking the US$1 trillion market capitalisation level.

South Korea’s Kospi – seen as a barometer for the AI trade – was up 0.6% in late trading, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index both increased 0.3%.

Subdued oil prices added to the positive mood, although Brent crude futures nudged up 1.3% to US$101.63 a barrel at 5pm in Auckland during the Asian trading session.

“The movements in Meta and the Nasdaq got the market excited, and a little bit of that rubbed off on our market,” said Jeremy Sullivan, an investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners. “Oil prices have come off a little and that’s helped buoy things.”

Infrastructure investor Infratil was among the bigger tailwinds for the NZX 50, rising 2.1% to $14.35. The firm also got a vote of confidence from chief financial officer Matthew Ross, who bought 1,000 shares on market last week at $14.25 each.

Goodman New Zealand, which is tilting towards building data centres, was up 1.8% at $1.96.

A new day

KMD Brands posted the biggest gain on the day, climbing 7.2% to $2.02, having hit a two-month high during the session. The retailer is due to report its annual result on Wednesday, and has previously said it would announce the details of its strategic review before or on the day of the result.

Briscoe Group, which is a small shareholder of KMD, climbed 3.1% to $4.72, while Hallenstein Glasson Holdings advanced 1.6% to $13.10.

Stock market operator NZX rose 1% to $1.49, even as BusinessDesk reported BlackBull Markets wouldn’t press ahead with an initial public offering after testing investor appetite.

Meanwhile, energy companies were mixed after finance minister Willis told a business conference in Auckland that structural separation of the electricity generator-retailers risked instability. Meridian Energy gained 0.9% to $5.62 and Mercury NZ increased 0.3% to $6.98, while Contact Energy slipped 0.7% to $8.79 and Genesis Energy declined 1.2% to $2.58.

Lines company Vector fell 1.1% to $4.73 ahead of its annual meeting on Thursday, while Air New Zealand – which holds its online shareholder meeting the same day – dropped 2.4% to 40 cents, in the steepest decline of the day for the benchmark.

Spark New Zealand was the most heavily traded stock on the day with a volume of 1.6 million shares changing hands as the telecommunications firm fell 1% to $2.01.

Outside the benchmark, MetroGlass rose 1.8% to 83 cents after updating shareholders at its annual meeting, while WasteCo sank 14%, or 0.1 of a cent, to 0.6 cents as the waste management firm’s chair Sean Joyce laid out the challenges facing the firm at its annual meeting.

Rua Bioscience was unchanged at 3.2 cents after the medicinal cannabis firm announced plans to raise as much as $2.8 million to fund it through to self-sustaining operations.

Meanwhile, Kiwibank is seeking $100 million from a five-year bond offering – with the ability to accept unlimited oversubscriptions – at an indicative yield of 5.08%.

The kiwi dollar traded at 57.36 US cents at 5pm from 57.23 cents yesterday after the quarterly Westpac-McDermott Miller employment confidence survey showed growing optimism among households that the jobs market would improve in the coming year, with the 22-year-old index recovering from its record lows.

Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Curious News.