The S&P/NZX 50 index rose for a second day as local investors still at their desks in the holiday-shortened week remained buoyed by US President Donald Trump’s toned-down rhetoric on firing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell and cooling his talk of slapping ever-rising tariffs on China.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare had a busy day as rival ResMed surged across the Tasman on news its exemption from Trump’s tariffs are still in place, while one of Ryman Healthcare’s big sellers from yesterday was revealed late in the session.
The power companies had a strong day after Genesis Energy’s late announcement on Wednesday that it’s in talks about sharing the load of stockpiling coal, while Skellerup Holdings led the benchmark index higher.
Meanwhile, ANZ’s consumer confidence showed households were less downbeat in April as New Zealand prepares to bookend the week with the Anzac Day holiday on Friday.
New Zealand’s NZX50 rose 61.37 points, or 0.5%, to 12,017.84, paring the weekly decline to 0.7% after Trump first started leaning on Powell over Easter weekend.
The toned-down rhetoric of the past two days allayed concerns among international investors, with stock markets mixed across Asia as Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.7% in late trading, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.1% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 increased 0.5%.
“Trump’s talk about being more lenient on China had the US markets on the up,” said Greg Smith, head of retail at Devon Funds Management. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty. Even if they lower the tariffs, they’re still pretty high.”
Finding normal
Skellerup led the benchmark index higher, climbing 7.1% to $4.20. The rubber goods maker has been punished over the tariff regime, given the exposure of its North American business to the import levies.
Global logistics firm Mainfreight rose 3.5% to $57.71.
F&P Healthcare rose 0.5% to $33.55 on a turnover of $63.4 million, accounting for a big chunk of the $174.2 million traded across the NZX’s main board. ASX-listed ResMed lifted its third-quarter revenue 9% on a constant currency basis, and told the Australian Financial Review its tariff exemption was reaffirmed by US Customs and Border Protection.
The power companies were broadly stronger with Meridian Energy rising 2.5% to $5.68, Manawa Energy climbing 5.1% to $4.93, Mercury NZ advancing 1.8% to $5.76 on a volume of 4.7 million – the most for the day – and Genesis Energy increasing 1.4% to $2.19. Contact Energy was the odd one out, falling 0.9% to $8.99.
Ryman Healthcare fell 0.4% to $2.32 after two unusually large trades were made on Wednesday. One of those sellers was revealed today as Cooper Investors, which sold about 29 million shares at $2.20 yesterday.
Vista Group International posted the biggest decline on the day, falling 2% to $3.46, while Oceana Healthcare slipped 1.6% to 61 cents, and KMD Brands fell 1.4%.
The kiwi dollar traded at 59.53 US cents at 5pm in Auckland from 59.56 cents at 7am and 59.79 cents yesterday. It edged up to 93.63 Australian cents from 93.49 cents yesterday.
Local consumer confidence improved in the latest ANZ Roy Morgan survey, rising 5 points to remain at a soggy 98.3 in April, while the majority of respondents still viewed it as a bad time to make big-ticket purchases, albeit at a smaller margin of minus 11.
Markets in Australia and New Zealand are closed for the Anzac Day commemorations on Friday.
Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Curious News.