by BusinessDesk
Devon Funds' head of retail, Greg Smith, said in the US, the technology sector had “propelled” the gains the Nasdaq saw on Monday, with the tech-heavy stock exchange surging 1.5% on Monday – closing at its highest level since April 2022.
He said the Nasdaq rally had been concentrated in larger-cap stocks operating in more international waters which was why NZ tech stocks hadn’t budged by much on Tuesday.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 37.3 points, or 0.3%, to 11,652.84. Turnover was $118 million.
Transport software company Eroad was down more than 7% in midafternoon trading but ended the day flat at 76 cents per share.
Travel management software firm Serko dipped 2.7% to $3.55.
Cinema software firm Vista Group went in the other direction due to its business in the US market.
Smith said Vista was a good example of how companies outside of the US with “more global exposure than domestic” had benefited from Nasdaq’s jump.
Vista rose 3.4% to $1.54 by the end of the day.
Scott Technology did enjoy some of the positive runoff from offshore, with the stock up 1.1% to $2.74.
Timing solutions company Rakon fell by 2.2% to 90 cents.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was up 1.5% to $23.91 and Ebos Group rose 1.9% to $36.26.
Air NZ traded the most volume and edged up 1.3% to 79 cents.
Auckland International Airport also had a much better time than recently and ended trading up 1.2% to $8.60.
It made up some of the loss the stock incurred on Monday when it was dragged down almost 3% as investors mulled over the state of the company and responded to Auckland council’s partial divestment decision last week.
Smith said retail stocks had a mixed day after falling on Monday, with Briscoes, The Warehouse, and Hallenstein Glassons all down over 2%.
It coincided with Statistics NZ releasing its retail electronic card spending for May on Monday. Seasonally adjusted total retail card spending fell by $113m in May, down 1.3% from April.
On Tuesday, Briscoe Group edged down 0.7% to $4.22 and Hallenstein Glassons edged up 0.3% to $5.92 on light value traded.
The Warehouse was flat at $1.64 per share while jeweller Michael Hill fell 2% to 97 cents.
KMD Brands rose 0.9% to $1.08.
Smith said Tuesday’s recoveries in the retail sector were “fairly modest” in most instances.
“The reality is the consumers are still pressurised and the sugar rush is well and truly over.”
Diversified infrastructure group Infratil opened its $100m retail offering for existing investors following a $750m mainly institutional placement that attracted bids well above what was on offer.
The infrastructure investor’s eligible shareholders will be able to buy up to $80,000 of shares at $9.20 each – roughly 8,966 shares.
Infratil may accept oversubscriptions or scale the offering at its discretion.
Smith said the offer appeared to be liked by the market as the stock was up earlier in the afternoon although it had edged down by 0.7% to $9.79 by early evening.
Reverse-listed WasteCo Group fell 4% to 7.2 cents after it announced earlier on Tuesday that it had raised $4.32m from new investors, selling 66.5m shares at 6.5 cents each.
In the banking sector, Heartland Group was up 1.2% to $1.68. ANZ Bank rose 0.6% to $25.28 and Westpac NZ was up 1.1% to $22.50.
London-headquartered bank HSBC announced it was quitting wealth and personal banking in NZ.
It said it won’t be accepting new retail customers as it winds down the local business over several years and focuses on its commercial division.
On the currency front, the NZ dollar was trading at 61.19 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, barely moving from 61.17 cents on Monday.
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