Investors drive market to record

Mark Lister said the rally the NZX 50 had experienced had been driven in part by investors realising the value of New Zealand stocks. Photo / File

NZX 50 Index regains all the losses it suffered during the global financial crisis.

The New Zealand sharemarket surged to a record high yesterday, driven by rises in major stocks including Telecom, Sky TV and Xero.

It's taken almost six years, but the NZX 50 Index has finally regained all the losses it suffered during the global financial crisis.

The index hit 4341 points just after 3.30pm, breaking through the previous high of 4333 points it reached in May 2007, before closing up 0.83 per cent at 4333.

Craigs Investment Partners head of private wealth research Mark Lister said the level the NZX 50 reached yesterday was an all-time high.

"I don't think that necessarily means that all the issues that we've seen since the global financial crisis hit have been fixed [but] it's certainly good and investors can take heart that we've had a pretty significant market correction - it's the biggest one we've had in many, many, many years," said Lister.

He said the rally the NZX 50 had experienced since the start of last year - rising around 32 per cent - had been driven in part by investors realising the value of New Zealand stocks.

"Companies on our market are in very good financial shape," Lister said, adding that dividend yields on many stocks were generous compared with interest rates on bank deposits.

Despite economic turmoil around the globe, other markets have also been surging ahead.

Wall St's Dow Jones index reached a record high this week.

"Stock markets are always looking forward a year or two," said Lister. "While there's still a lot of challenges out there, there are less challenges than there were 12 months ago. Things are getting better."

Shares in cloud accounting software provider Xero gained 5.53 per cent to close at $8.59 last night, giving the tech company a more than $1 billion market capitalisation for the first time.

Telecom rose 1.95 per cent to close at $2.35, while Sky TV closed up 2.56 per cent at $5.20 and Air New Zealand finished the day up 2.41 per cent at $1.49.

"There's potentially more upside as investors continue to put new money into the market," said Grant Williamson, of Christchurch sharebrokers Hamilton Hindin Greene. He said the market probably wouldn't perform as well this year as it did in 2012. "But I think we're still going to have a pretty good year, barring any upsets from offshore."