New Zealand stocks post second consecutive rise – Market close

The NZX posted its second successive gain of around 0.5%.

A more confident New Zealand sharemarket reached its highest level in a month, posting its second successive gain of around 0.5%, on widely-held hopes of another big interest rate cut next week.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index traded steadily and closed at 12,816.32, up 51.67 points or 0.4%. The index crept closer to the year’s high of 12,923.22 points set on October 21.

Volumes were again strong with 36.11 million share transactions worth $176.43 million, led by Infratil and Spark, which move in and out of the MSCI Global Index respectively this month.

David McConnochie, investment adviser with Forsyth Barr, said it was a strong day on the market, influenced by Australia, which was up more than 1% as healthcare and gold stocks rebounded.

Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index had climbed 1.26% to a new all-time high of 8404.8 points at 6pm NZT. The previous best was 8384.5 points.

In latest economic data, New Zealand producer price inflation increased 4.2% annually after the third quarter, the fastest pace since March last year. Electricity, insurance and transport costs were up but farm expenses fell 0.2%.

ANZ Research is expecting a 50-basis-point (bps) cut in the Official Cash Rate (OCR) to 4.25% next Wednesday following a similar reduction early last month.

ANZ said data since the Reserve Bank’s October monetary policy review has been mixed, but none of it looks likely to upset the apple cart. After that, ANZ has predicted the bank will reduce the pace of easing to standard 25bps to reach a trough of 3.5% in May next year.

At home, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was up 49c to $38.07; Auckland International Airport gained 13c or 1.76% to $7.53; Mercury Energy increased 12c or 1.77% to $6.90; Contact added 13c to $8.62; and Ryman Healthcare collected 13c or 2.73% to $4.90.

Meridian was up 11.5c or 1.96% to $5.99 after releasing its October operating report, with national hydro storage increasing from 115% to 139% of its historical average and retail sales volume decreasing 0.6% compared with the same period last year. There was a 20.5% rise in large business sales.

Dual-listed banking stocks ANZ was up 57c to $36.10 and Westpac gained 51c to $37.06 on the back of the strong trading day in Australia.

Napier Port rose 11c or 4.91% to $2.35 after reporting a 15.9% hike in revenue to $141.35m and 49.7% rise in net profit to $24.83m for the 12 months ending September. It is paying a final dividend of 6c a share on December 18.

Saying it is well positioned for further growth post-Cyclone Gabrielle, container volumes increased 3.4% to 230,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) and bulk cargo was up 9% to 3.47 million tonnes. There was 13.5% growth in log volumes to 2.87 million tonnes.

Cruise vessel visits to Napier Port increased from 64 to 89, contributing $9.1m in revenue.

Vulcan Steel increased 21c or 2.53% to $8.51; Investore was up 2c or 1.82% to $1.12; Hallenstein Glasson gained 19c or 2.5% to $7.79; Scales Corp improved 12c or 2.98% to $4.15; Green Cross Health added 2c or 2.63% to 78c; and PGG Wrightson was up 4c or 2.41% to $1.70.

Other gainers were 2 Cheap Cars, up 3c or 3.8% to 82c; Radius Residential Care rising 1.8c or 9.38% to 21c; Burger Fuel collecting 1.5c or 5.17% to 30.5c; Carbon Fund increasing 6c or 3.55% to $1.75; and ikeGPS improving 2c or 3.57% to 58c.

It was a volatile day for Infratil, down 16.5c to $12.185, as passive investment funds that track the MSCI Global Index chased shares – trading reached 4.36m shares worth more than $53.5m. The stock price ranged from a high of $12.52 to a low of $12.135.

Spark, down 6c or 1.91% to $3.0985, was also hit by heavy trading – 4.8 million shares worth $14.97m - as the passive funds offloaded their holdings.

KMD Brands was down 1c or 2.33% to 42c after reporting a 5.8% decline in group sales for the first quarter ending October 24, with Rip Curl sales down 6.7%; Oboz shoes falling 8.6%; and Kathmandu decreasing 2.7%, though gross profit dollars were ahead of the same period last year.

Gentrack decreased 37c or 3.51% to $10.17; Mainfreight was down 50c to $73.20; Freightways shed 10c to $10.54; Ventia Services fell 19c or 3.59% to $5.10; Third Age Health declined 9c or $3.83 to $2.26; Synlait Milk eased 1.5c or 3.8% to 38c; and Marsden Maritime Holdings was down 8c or 2.27% to $3.45.

Rakon, unchanged at 68c, told the market its master reference oscillator subsystem has been selected by the German Aerospace Centre for an in-orbit mission on board the International Space Station.