Cancer diagnostics company Pacific Edge saw the biggest increase in the markets yesterday, its stock climbed up 2.2 per cent over no apparent news. Photo / File
Keeping you up to date with the latest market moves, in association with Investment firm Jarden
New Zealand
The NZX 50 finished Tuesday's trading flat, up only 0.08 per cent. Financials increased 1.4 per cent and was the best performing sector of the day. Conversely, industrials and technology underperformed after dropping 0.9 and 0.5 per cent respectively.
For the second day in a row EROAD closed on top, jumping up 3.1 per cent. Even after two days of gains, EROAD remains 19.4 per cent down from the start of the year.
The next biggest increase came from Pacific Edge, which climbed up 2.2 per cent over no apparent news. Like EROAD, Pacific Edge is still 29.5 per cent down from the start of the year but is nudging back up.
Rounding out the top three is Westpac, with an increase of 1.7 per cent. Fitch Ratings gave a long-term issuer default rating of A+ and short-term issuer default rating of F1 to Westpac's unsecured debt instruments.
Looking at underperformers, Synlait Milk dropped 3.3 per cent. Synlait has recently increased their forecast for base milk by 35 cents per kg of milk solids. This may be linked to continuance of high commodity prices globally.
The second largest decrease came from Vector, which fell 1.7 per cent. Yesterday was the ex-dividend date for Vector. They are paying NZD 3.45 cents per share on 8 April.
Rounding out the bottom three declines is Auckland Airport. The decrease of 1.7 per cent follows no apparent news.
New Zealand and Fiji signed a partnership statement yesterday. The statement is said to help pursue understanding of coordination on foreign policy and support capabilities to uphold sovereign authority.
Property auctions have declined, with only 360 last week. This represents an 18 per cent drop from the first week of March. Out of the 360 properties, only 103 sold, giving a sales rate of 29 per cent. This declined from the previous week where the sales rate was 36 per cent.
International
US
All major US indices were in the green at the time of writing, with all eyes are on US fourth quarter GDP which is due to be released today. The S&P 500 gained 0.6 per cent, the Nasdaq was up 1.1 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3 per cent.
Sectors were mixed. Top sector gainers were real estate (+1.9 per cent), communication services sector (1.2 per cent) and consumer discretionary (+1.2 per cent).
Bottom movers were energy (-1.8 per cent), financials (-0.2 per cent) and utilities (-0.1 per cent).
Leading the outperforming stocks this morning was Portuguese commercial bank Banco Commercial Portugues, rising 46.6 per cent.
Robinhood Markets gained 26.5 per cent after announcing to customers plans to extend the trading day by four hours. Trading through the platform will run from 7.00 am to 8.00 pm New York time.
Banking app Dave rounded out the gainers, up 26.2 per cent.
On the flip side, the biggest laggard was Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores, down 9.7 per cent.
Elbit Systems fell 9.0 per cent after announcing a drop in profit in the fourth quarter despite sales rising from a year earlier. The Israel-based defence electronics company earned US$2.14 per diluted share in the quarter, compared to the previous year's US$2.38 per share.
Tellurian dropped 7.7 per cent. The company began construction on its first liquified natural gas terminal yesterday.
Rest of the World
Asian markets were mixed overnight. The Shanghai Composite decreased 0.3 per cent, the Nikkei gained 1.1 per cent and the Hang Seng was up 1.1 per cent.
European markets were in the green. The FTSE inclined 0.9 per cent, the DAX was up 2.8 per cent and the CAC gained 3.1 per cent. These gains come as face-to-face talks between representatives from Russia and Ukraine resumed in Turkey on Tuesday.
Commodities
Gold traded 1.4 per cent lower at US$1918.40 per ounce.WTI crude oil also declined, falling 1.9 per cent to US$103.96 per barrel on easing geopolitical concerns.
The cryptocurrency market was largely in the red. Bitcoin was down 0.5 per cent and Ethereum up 0.5 per cent.
The US 10-year Treasury rate fell seven basis points to 2.409 per cent.
Australia
The ASX 200 reached a 50-day high of 7,464.30 points after a 0.7 per cent improvement yesterday.
Nine of the 11 sectors recorded gains, with information technology (+3.3 per cent), consumer discretionary (+2.1 per cent) and health care (+1.8 per cent) leading the market upwards. Energy and materials underperformed, decreasing 0.6 and 0.2 per cent, respectively.
Following a slump last week, investment manager Magellan Financial Group finished as the top performing single stock in the index with a 7.1 per cent gain. Data firm Appen rose 6.7 per cent, closely followed by medical device company PolyNovo (+ 6.6 per cent).
Miner Whitehaven Coal dropped 4.3 per cent against the run of play. SkyCity Entertainment Group (listed on both the ASX and NZX) and agribusiness GrainCorp both fell 2.6 per cent.
Uniti Group has ended M&A talks with the Connect Consortium, which consists of Macquarie Asset Management and PSP Investments. The telco provider will instead engage with Kiwi asset manager HRL Morrison & Co and its Canadian partner Brookfield.
The Morrison & Co/Brookfield consortium raised their bid by 50 cents to A$5 per share, a A$3.4 billion takeover offer, on the condition that Uniti cease talks with the Connect Consortium. Uniti's share price slipped 1.7 per cent.
Yesterday's release of the ANZ-Roy Morgan survey revealed steady consumer confidence during the fourth week of March, following substantial decreases in the preceding two weeks. However, at 91.1 points, consumer confidence lingered 21.2 points lower than the same week in 2021. Weekly inflation expectations for the year (6.4 per cent) rose to their highest level since June 2012.
Australia's Federal Budget was headlined by A$8.6 billion to address cost of living pressures. The Morrison-Government has halved the 44.2 cent fuel excise for six months, allocated one-off $420 tax rebates to 10 million low and middle-income earners, as well as $250 bonuses to six million welfare recipients and pensioners.
The Budget predicts a decrease in inflation from this year's 4.3 per cent to 3.0 per cent next year, followed by 2.3 per cent inflation for the consequent two years.
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