Streets have emptied due to New Zealand's lockdown. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Keeping you up to date with the latest market moves, in association with Investment firm Jarden
New Zealand
New Zealand markets traded up 1.0 per cent on Monday despite confirmation the country will stay in level four lockdown until at least Friday, excluding Auckland, which will remain in
lockdown until the 31st of August at the earliest. The index finished at 13,064.1 points.
Leading sectors comprised of both industrials and utilities, making gains of 2.0 and 1.4 per cent respectively.
Overall index movements can be attributed to strong gains from Z Energy and Serko. Z advanced a whopping 14.1 per cent after the company announced it had received a takeover bid from Australian fuel company Ampol. The bid was priced at $3.78 per share, a significant premium to where the shares traded on Friday's close, and a slight gap from today's close at $3.49.
Travel management company Serko also traded higher by 10.9 per cent as the stock received potential index fund buying interest. Mainfreight was in a similar position, rising 5.0 per cent to breach $90.00 per share for the first time in the company's history.
Stride Property Group (+4.4 per cent), NZME (+6.9 per cent) and Pacific Edge (+6.3 per cent) were also strong performers, although there did not seem to be obvious reasons for the moves.
On the flip side, consumer cyclicals was the worst performing sector on Monday, down 0.2 per cent with Tourism Holdings (-1.7 per cent) and Skycity Entertainment (-0.3 per cent) leading the sector down despite a strong rally from My Food Bag (+4.4 per cent).
Noncyclical stocks also fared poorly, with wine producer Delegat (-2.1 per cent) and Scales (-1.1 per cent) falling slightly.
Weighing down index performance were single stock losers Chorus and Heartland Group Holdings. Chorus traded unfavourably (-2.9 per cent) after releasing its FY21 result, albeit, Chorus did have a solid run at the end of last week following a Commerce Commission report outlining the valuation of its broadband business. On the other hand, Heartland Group fell 2.8 per cent ahead of its financial year 2021 earnings release on Tuesday.
International
US
Investors buying interest ahead of the Fed's Jackson Hole gathering led the major US indices to start the week off strong. Federal Reserve bankers hold their annual economic symposium this week to discuss monetary policy and possible interferences with the economic recovery in the future. At the time of writing, the S&P 500 rose 1.0 per cent, the DJIA was trading 0.8 per cent higher, and the NASDAQ climbed 1.6 per cent.
Utilities and real estate were the biggest laggards, decreasing 1.5 and 0.5 per cent, respectively. Energy rallied 3.8 per cent, followed by communication services improving 1.6 per cent.
Energy holding company APA Corp was the top gainer, rising 7.7 per cent, along with Occidental Petroleum, up 6.9 per cent. Both companies performed strongly on the back of a rising oil price.
Moderna shares gained 6.8 per cent, in anticipation of its vaccine being fully approved in the US by the FDA, following full approvals for the Pfizer (+2.8 per cent) and BioNTech (+9.1 per cent) vaccine.
The worst performer this morning was electric power and energy infrastructure company, NextEra Energy, declining 2.3 per cent. Utilities holding company, Ameren Corporation, also underperformed, down 2.1 per cent. Rounding out the bottom performers was swimming pool supplies distributor Pool Corporation (-2.0 per cent).
Rest of the World
The major Asian indices all performed well overnight. The Nikkei rose 1.8 per cent, the Shanghai index increased 1.5 per cent, the Hang Seng traded 1.1 per cent higher, and the Shenzhen was up 2.0 per cent.
Commodities
Commodities followed equities to start the week strong.
Gold increased 1.3 per cent to US$1,807.10 per ounce.
Oil rallied 5.8 per cent to US$65.77 per barrel, following five days of decline. As severe shortages of fuel have brought Lebanon to a standstill, the Lebanese government announced on Sunday that it would lift fuel prices by 66.0 per cent in a partial reduction of fuel subsidies.
Cryptocurrencies were performing well across the board. Starting this week, PayPal will let British customers buy, hold, and sell digital currencies. US customers have been able to access PayPal's crypto features since October last year, the UK expansion will be the first international move for the new offering.
On Sunday, Bitcoin (+1.9 per cent) cracked the US$50,000 mark for the first time since May. Ethereum was up 5.0 per cent.
The US 10-year treasury rate decreased slightly, yielding 1.255 per cent at the time of writing.
Australia
The ASX 200 rose 0.4 per cent yesterday.
The Australia PMI (Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index) was released yesterday, showing the impact of Covid-19 and the associated restrictions on mobility on the wider economy. The Manufacturing PMI fell to 51.7 in August from 56.9 in July, close to the contraction inflection point of 50.0 and a 14-month low. The manufacturing output index fell to a 15-month low of 44.5. The services sector PMI declined from 44.2 to 43.3 in August, the lowest since May 2020.
The top performing sectors yesterday were information technology and A-REIT, up 1.7 and 0.9 per cent, respectively. In contrast, the only two sectors to decline were consumer staples and energy, falling 0.4 and 0.3 per cent, respectively.
Lithium mining company Pilbara Minerals shot up 11.4 per cent. This share price rise may have been due to a rebound from last week's decline.
Appen increased by 7.1 per cent. The artificial intelligence company is set to report its annual results release on Thursday.
NIB Holdings declined by 11.0 per cent. The health care fund released its full-year 2021 annual results yesterday. Despite optically strong results in the key metrics such as group underlying operating profit rising 39.5 per cent (to AUS$204.9 million) and net profit after tax up 84.5 per cent (to AUS$160.5 million), this did not live up to investor expectations and the share price declined.
Falling 6.4 per cent was Redbubble. The online marketplace contracted somewhat after a strong rally last week post-earnings result release.
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Disclaimer: This Morning Brief has been prepared in good faith and reflects opinions and views at the time of publication, using external sources, systems and other data and information we believe to be accurate, complete and reliable at the time of preparation. We make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, correctness and completeness of that information, and will not be liable or responsible for any error or omission. This Morning Brief is not to be relied upon as a basis for making any investment decision. Please seek specific investment advice before making any investment decision. Jarden Securities Limited is an NZX Firm, a broker disclosure statement is available free of charge at www.jarden.co.nz. Jarden is not a registered bank in New Zealand. Full disclaimer available at: https://www.jarden.co.nz/limitations-and-disclaimera>