Quiet start to week as eyes turn to US election - Market close

The index was up 31.32 points or 0.25%. Photo / NZME

The New Zealand sharemarket had a quiet start to the week as traders paused their bets ahead of the US election.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell promptly out the gates before climbing and then steadying throughout the day to close at 12,590.6, up 31.32 points or 0.25%.

Trading was relatively light, with 28 million shares worth $99.9m changing hands.

Monday’s slow trading comes after the index fell 1.7% last week.

Mohandeep Singh, portfolio manager at Craigs Investment Partners, said the market is anticipating several major events in the coming days, chief among them the US presidential election.

Singh said markets will also be watching whether the US Federal Reserve cuts interest rates later in the week, which it is widely expected to do.

Singh said Statistics NZ’s labour market statistics, released on Wednesday, will be less important. It will be the last major data release before the Reserve Bank of NZ’s (RBNZ) monetary policy statement in November.

“Most traders have already priced in a 50-basis point cut, so unless the Stats NZ data surprises, I don’t expect that to impact trading too heavily,” Singh said. “Overall, it’s a bit of a wait-and-see to see how overseas markets respond to the news cycle.”

The NZ Exchange (NZX) was light on Monday announcements to compound the calm.

One exception is Westpac, which kicked off Australian bank earnings season by declaring a 3% decline in full-year net profit to $7.1 billion in the year to September 30. Shares rose 1.86% to $35.57.

Westpac’s NZ division reported a 10% net profit gain to $1.06b, as its impairment charges dropped from $135m to $27m.

National Australia Bank, which owns the Bank of NZ (BNZ), and ANZ will report later this week.

Serko continued its stellar month, rising 6.25% to $3.74 after trading under $3 for most of October.

These gains have been helped by last week’s news that Serko would acquire GetThere, Singh said.

Air NZ and Tourism Holdings Limited’s (THL) shares grew 1% to $0.52 and 1.52% to $2.01, respectively.

Singh said both companies are highly exposed to domestic consumer spending, which has been offset marginally by a weak NZ dollar enticing overseas visitors.

Also contradicting recent trends, Spark rose 2.43% to $2.95 on high volumes, amounting to $5.5m in value. Spark is expected to leave the MSCI Global Index in the coming weeks.

Other gainers included NZ Rural Land Infratil, which rose 4.49% to $0.93; Restaurant Brands was up 3.25% to $3.49; NZX increased nearly 3% to $1.39; and Skellerup gained 1.88% to 4.87.

The day’s largest decliner was a small-cap Cooks Coffee Company, which fell 10.71% to $0.25.

In the minerals sector, Santana fell 3.45% to $0.84; New Talisman Gold Mines was down 4.6% to $0.021. Retailers Michael Hill International and The Warehouse Group’s shares fell 3% to $0.64 and 0.95% to $1.04 respectively.

Freightways Group shed 2.1% to $10.28. The firm remains 29% up in 2024.

Infratil moved the largest share of the day’s volumes with over $15m traded, rising 0.28% to $12.75.