Market continues to be full of New Year cheer

New Zealand’s market took yesterday’s rally in its stride and jumped up again today, a hopeful sign that the local market’s new year cheer will continue.

Thursday, January 5th 2023, 6:06PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 index rose 63.8 points, or 0.6%, to 11,651.29. Across the main board, 85 stocks rose and 42 fell. Turnover was $90.5 million.

Devon Funds head of retail Greg Smith told BusinessDesk that unlike the North Island – which had been experiencing a huge amount of rain in the last week – New Zealand’s market wasn’t seeing the same “soggy start” to the year.

NZ’s market jumped into the green for a second day, helped by heavyweight stocks having a good day and pushing the index in a positive direction.

Amongst the heavyweights were healthcare manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Healthcare – up 1.9% to $23.50 – and aged care provider Ryman Healthcare which rose 1.3% to $5.50. Freight company Mainfreight also edged up 1.8% to $67.

Healthcare manufacturer Ebos Group which had jumped up 4% yesterday to a new record share price high of $45.70 was down very slightly by 0.02% to $45.69. The stock traded the most value today, almost $24.5m by early evening.

Smith said the company had quite a strong growth story after having made “a number of astute acquisitions in recent years” which included the purchase of medical device firm LifeHealthCare.

Retailers also saw a boost up the index today. The Warehouse rose 2.6% to $2.72, while KMD Brands was up 2% to $1.03. Briscoe Group was up earlier in the day but by early evening was flat at $4.60 per share.

Last Friday, The Warehouse told the market that total sales for its second financial quarter – the busiest time of year for the retailer and a quarter that Smith called “pretty pivotal” for the retailer’s earnings – were down 5.5%.

This was due to The Warehouse’s subsidiaries like appliance and electronics retailer Noel Leeming's sales falling 11.8% and outdoor adventure store Torpedo7's sales being knocked down by 8.5%.

Smith said the fall in Noel Leeming and Torpedo7 sales was a big sign of discretionary spending tightening.

Cancer diagnostics company Pacific Edge rose 5.1% to 52 cents in light trading while cinema technology provider Vista Group was also up 4% to $1.56. Vista Group told shareholders last week that it had entered into a trade agreement with London-listed Cineworld Group as part of the UK company’s bankruptcy process.

Renewable energy company Infratil which had edged up by 2% yesterday was down 1.4% to $8.71 today.

Smith said Infratil had announced a revaluation of its 48% stake in the CDC Data Centres business and the company’s stake was now estimated to be worth between A$2.97 billion (NZ$3.22b) to A$3.55b – up from A$2.64b -A$3.13b.

On the currency front, the NZ dollar was trading at 63.02 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, up from 62.61 cents yesterday.

The kiwi was drifting around the 63-cent mark since the beginning of the year before it saw a sharp 1-cent plummet to the 62 cents region on Tuesday and has slowly been making its way higher since then.

Tags: Market Close