Market close: A good start to 2022 in first day of trading

The day ended with 39.6m shares traded on the NZX main board for a value of $127.1m. Photo / NZME

Infrastructure investor Infratil and healthcare marketer Ebos were the standout performers in a quiet but solid first trading day of 2022 in which the NZX50 gained around 1 per cent.

Infratil's announcement of an independently-assessed 15 per cent increase in the value of its investment in CDC Data Centres as at 31 December, saw its share price close 3.75 per cent up at $8.30.

Investors continued to be well-disposed to the Ebos story after its acquisition and capital raising late last year, its share price closing up 3.13 per cent at $42.49.

Mark Lister of Craigs Investment Partners, describing the first day's trading as "very solid" but to be expected as it played catch-up with international markets which opened earlier this week, said Infratil's CDC valuation business was no surprise either.

"Data centres are performing very well around the world - that CDC data centre business is a great asset, definitely a jewel in the crown of Infratil's current assets."

Hamilton Hindin Greene's Tom McBride said the valuation put Infratil in "good stead for the year ahead".

McBride said the ASX, which opened a day earlier than the NZX, had a flat Wednesday, noting the Brent crude oil price rose 1.5 per cent the previous night, serving to buoy the market.

Lister said with many investors still holidaying and no New Zealand economic or earnings reports on offer there was little to spur the market, but the US was providing economic pointers of interest, including the IMS manufacturing index and an imminent jobs market report. US interest rates had gone up sharply overnight Tuesday which saw technology stocks "take a bit of a beating".

Tech stocks do well when interest rates are falling or low, he said.

The IMS manufacturing index, watched closely by world economists, softened slightly but "still remains very much pointing to economic expansion", Lister said.

"The prevailing tone across world sharemarkets is one of how long will this inflation we are seeing last? How aggressive will central banks be with interest rate rises and what will that do to asset prices and economic growth and borrowing costs?

"That's very much front of mind for investors. Interest rates are expected to go up - and quite sharply."

Electricity stocks had a mixed day. Mercury NZ was one of the best performers of the day, its share price rising 20c or 3.3 per cent to $6.32, while Contact Energy came off 14c or 1.7 per cent to $7.96.

Lister said the electricity sector had been a "pretty poor performer" over the past 12 months.

"I expect the sector to be in the spotlight again this year because of the impact higher interest rates could have on investor sentiment towards these stocks."

McBride said the NZX's "overall positive tone" to the start of the new year echoed the way the New Zealand market ended 2021 - "pretty positively".

"But there's no volume out there. There are only three trading days this week until the weekend. Shareholders are still on holiday or not fully back into it yet."

The day ended with 39.6m shares traded on the NZX main board for a value of $127.1m.