“[There were] some positive developments offshore, and the market is now very confident that we will see an OCR [Official Cash Rate] cut in New Zealand next week, and probably more importantly, a cut from the US Federal Reserve next month,” Lister said.
“Markets are in reasonable spirits on the back of that, and we’ve got through the bulk of the confession season without too many downgrades. So hopefully we have some good results next week.”
Vista Group reported its first-half results today, with mixed reactions among analysts.
The business reported 11% in revenue growth over the period but it expects its full-year result to be near the low end of the guidance range.
“They’re also increasing spending to transition some of their customers to their cloud operations. I think there’s still an attractive medium-term story there for Vista, but they obviously are sensitive to demand and so forth,” Lister said.
Vista Group’s share price fell 3.32% or 11c to $3.20 after 2.8 million shares changed hands on turnover worth $9m.
Lister said most other stocks on the market had a positive day, including dual-listed Westpac, which lifted 6.45% or $2.39 to $39.45.
Freightways also had a positive day, lifting 3.60% or 40c to $11.50.
Elsewhere, Napier Port gave back some of its earnings from yesterday’s session, falling 1.28% to $3.08, down 4c.
Spark’s share price also decreased on high turnover, declining 6c to $2.48 after 1.4 million shares changed hands on trading worth $3.6m.
Lister said all of the attention is focused on results coming out next week, which he said will need to be good if the New Zealand sharemarket were to match global peers.
“Looking at the year-to-date numbers now, it’s still pretty depressing. We’re down 2% year-to-date, but Australia’s up 9%, the US is up 10%, the UK is up 12%, Japan’s up 10% and Europe is up 8.5%.
“We still look pretty mediocre in the context of the rest of the world, so we want to see a bit of catch-up from our little old market.”
Wall Street stocks pushed higher on Wednesday local time, lifting the broad-based S&P 500 and tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index to fresh records, as markets extended a rally following data showing US inflation remains stable.
Stocks are in “full easing expectations mode”, said CFRA Research’s Sam Stovall, who expects two US Federal Reserve interest rate cuts later this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average led major indices, rising 1.0% to 44,922.27.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.3% to 6466.58, while the Nasdaq added 0.1% at 20,713.14.
US stocks spent most of the day in positive territory, drifting higher after Tuesday’s consumer price index report showed inflation held in July at 2.7% year-on-year.
The report reassured markets that President Donald Trump’s aggressive campaign of tariffs has not significantly boosted consumer prices.
– Additional reporting AFP
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
