NZ sharemarket ‘treading water a little bit’ - Market close

Briscoe edged up 3.787% to $4.94 ahead of the company’s first-half earnings announcement on Wednesday, which will kick off the reporting season for retailers.

After dipping before midday, New Zealand shares closed marginally up on relatively high trading volumes despite a slow-news Tuesday.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index increased 11.2 points, or 0.09%, to 12,632.82. Across the main board, 79 stocks rose, and 50 fell. Trade volumes were just over 40 million, accounting for $164 million in total value traded.

Blair Knight, an investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners, said September is historically one of the worst months, but this year, it’s too early to call.

“We had a pretty bumpy ride to kick the month off. We’re just sort of treading water a little bit at the moment. There’s little news flow and not a huge amount of direction,” he said. “[NZ markets] are being driven on a lot off the offshore flows.”

The day’s leader, Cooks Coffee Company, rose 11.11% to 25c on small volumes after a trading update. Sales at Esquires stores, a cafe chain based in Britain and Ireland and Cooks Coffee’s core business, are up as the company continues expanding its footprint in the British Isles.

Meridian Energy shares likewise traded up, finishing the day with a 1.07% gain at $6.03 on volumes of nearly $18m. The “gentailer” said the major hydro lakes are returning to normal levels after persistent rain, and more is forecast in the coming days.

Vital Healthcare got a boost before close, finishing the day 3.13% up at $1.98.

The day’s other major winners achieved their gains on relatively small volumes. My Food Bag shares rose 7% to 23c, and data technology firm Black Pearl Group also surged 7% to $1.36.

Briscoe edged up 3.787% to $4.94 ahead of the company’s first-half earnings announcement on Wednesday, which will kick off retailers’ reporting season.

The day’s biggest decliners were property investment company Kiwi Property Group, which fell 2.11% to 93c. Oceania Healthcare is down 2.44% to 80c after a solid couple of months for the retirement sector following Arvida’s buyout proposal announcement.

Though offshore markets have managed to regain some of their losses in the last 24 hours of trading, the big indexes are still down over five days on average.

When writing, the Nasdaq-100, S&P 500, FTSE 100 and S&P/ASX 200 were down 4%, 2.72%, 1.11% and 1.09% respectively.

By contrast, the NZX 50 is still up over five days at a modest 0.6%.

Knight said this is because NZ markets are not exposed to the “violent moves” of tech securities.

“When markets are crashing, we tend to perform better than those offshore markets, but likewise, when those tech stocks are running well, we underperform on the way up as well,” he said.

The index’s recent relative success can be credited to the big boosts in Infratil, which has been up more than 8% since September 4.

Though relatively flat in today’s trading, rising 0.08% to $12.1, Infratil dominated volumes (just under $25m) for a second day after Monday’s announcements that the company would be added to the S&P/ASX 300.

Knight said Spark’s losses since their disappointing result in late August have dragged down the index for a week. On Tuesday, Spark shares dropped 1% to $3.48 on volumes of nearly $13.4m.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare also traded in high volumes, reaching nearly $22m by the end of the day. The shares stayed relatively static at $37.43m, falling 0.32%.