New Zealand shares rallied in heavy trading as the regular index reweightings had institutional investors rejigging their portfolios, but it wasn’t enough to stop the fifth straight weekly decline for the local benchmark.
The S&P/NZX 50 index climbed 58.82 points, or 0.5%, to 12,113.54, with a turnover of $737.5 million going through the main board.
Of that, Auckland International Airport, Spark New Zealand and The a2 Milk Co all had more than $100 million of shares change hands, with investors tracking the S&P/NZX and FTSE Russell indices having to rejig their portfolios to match the changes.
“It’s one of those days where everyone’s optimistic again, and we haven’t had too many of those,” said Peter McIntyre, an investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.
The day’s gain wasn’t enough to offset the 1.2% decline across the week, which saw the NZX50 slip to its lowest level since July.
SkyCity Entertainment Group led the top 50 index higher in a broad rally, climbing 7.6% to $1.27, while Sanford advanced 5.7% to $4.97, and Infratil gained 4.9% to $10.77 on a volume of 5.5 million.
Warehouse Group increased 2.4% to 84 cents, having been trading at a record low. The retail reported a return to first-half profit, even as sales and margins were squeezed.
McIntyre said the retailer’s result was in line with expectations, which were already pretty weak.
“The market took that as good news,” he said.
Skinny margins
Among other retailers reporting in the coming week, Hallenstein Glasson Holdings rose 5.1% to $8 and KMD Brands increased 1.4% to 48 cents. Briscoe Group fell 0.7% to $4.37.
Mercury NZ posted the day’s biggest decline on the benchmark index, falling 2.6% to $5.56 on a volume of 4.1 million shares. Ryman Healthcare, which dropped out of the S&P/NZX10, fell 2.6% to $2.67 with 5.7 million shares traded, and replacement a2 Milk slipped 2.4% to $8.94 with 11.4 million shares changing hands.
Spark New Zealand rose from its 13-year low, climbing 2% to $2 on a volume of 58.7 million shares, while Auckland Airport slipped 0.4% to $7.79 on a volume of 14.9 million.
NZME fell 0.9% to $1.14 in a whippy day for the media group after it released two statements to the stock exchange. The first pre-empted a news article that it had been in talks with Stuff to buy the Post and Press newspapers, but that those talks stalled when it faced its boardroom ouster.
The second was rebel shareholder Jim Grenon’s letter to the board, which was to go out in the notice of meeting, outlining his concerns about the company’s directors.
McIntyre said the global environment will continue to dictate most of the local market’s moves, with investors expecting two interest rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve this year, while the potential impact of the White House’s tariff programme adds extra uncertainty into the outlook.
The kiwi dollar traded at 57.51 US cents at 5pm in Auckland from 57.49 cents at 7am, and down from 57.96 cents yesterday. It traded at 91.40 Australian cents from 91.36 cents yesterday.
Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Curious News.