NZ shares rise on 'covid-fear trade'

New Zealand shares edged higher as the covid pandemic again set the agenda, with Fisher & Paykel Healthcare climbing while travel stocks dropped.

Friday, July 23rd 2021, 7:18PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 15.48 points, or 0.1%, to 12,736.31. Turnover was $162.2 million.

The government today suspended quarantine-free travel from Australia in an effort to keep the highly infectious delta variant of covid-19 out of Aotearoa. The announcement came after 136 new cases were found today in New South Wales.

This sent travel stocks tumbling on the NZX: Auckland Airport dropped 2.1% to $7.15, Tourism Holdings fell 1.7% to $2.38, and Air NZ was down 1.3% at $1.505.

Nikko AM portfolio manager, Stuart Williams said Qantas Airways’ view that international travel wouldn’t come back until mid-2022 had seemed “ultra-conservative”, but he said it was now looking like they might be right.

The index was saved from a fall as investors bought F&P Healthcare shares to hedge against the ongoing pandemic. The respirator parts manufacturer rose 3.2% to $32.65 with half a million share changing hands.

“Fisher & Paykel is benefiting from the covid-fear trade, although it is quite noticeable with the delta variant, while it is clearly highly infectious, hospitalisation rates are quite low,” said Matt Goodson, a director at Salt Funds.

The healthcare company’s sales tend to track covid hospitalisation rates around the world as their respirator humidifiers and other hospital products are used to treat patients.

A2 Milk Company fell 2.3% to $7.14. Goodson said there had been no news on the stock but trading had been volatile anyway.

The NZ dollar made slight gains with the European Central Bank sending comforting signals to traders as it left its monetary policy settings unchanged and promised to continue buying bonds until March next year.

By contrast, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand ended its programme on Thursday and may hike interest rates as soon as next month.

The kiwi dollar was trading 69.78 US cents at 5pm in Wellington, up from 69.58 cents yesterday.

The trade-weighted index was at 74.10 at 5pm, from 73.97 yesterday. The kiwi was traded at 94.50 Australian cents from 94.66, 76.87 yen from 76.63 yen, 59.26 euro cents from 58.99 cents, 50.69 British pence from 50.76 pence, and 4.5150 Chinese yuan from 4.4994 yuan.

Tags: Market Close