NZ sharemarket turnaround as Mercury Energy hits all-time high
The New Zealand sharemarket staged a major turnaround, with Mercury Energy hitting an all-time high and property stocks continuing to rebound.
Wednesday, March 6th 2024, 6:38PM 
1 Comment
by BusinessDesk
Following a sharp fall on Wall Street, the S&P/NZX 50 Index fell at the opening and reached a morning low of 11,656.38 points. But the index picked up steam during the afternoon, particularly in the end-of-day matching session, and closed at 11,795.9, up 42.88 points or 0.36%.
There were 71 gainers and 56 decliners over the whole market on volumes of 35.67 million share transactions worth $139.51m.
David McConnochie, investment adviser with Forsyth Barr, said it was another quiet day news-wise on the market.
“With the reporting season out of the way, the market will muddle along till the dividends are paid,” McConnochie said.
Some of the big tech stocks in the United States took a dive, dragging the major indices away from record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.04% to 38,585.19 points; S&P 500 declined 1.02% to 5078.65; and Nasdaq Composite fell 1.65% to 15,939.59.
Apple declined 2.84% to US$170.12 (NZ$279.23) after a report said iPhone sales in China plunged in the first six weeks of this year. Netflix was down 2.81% to US$598.5, Microsoft declined 2.96% to US$402.65, and Tesla fell 3.93% to US$180.74.
Amazon, which recently replaced Walgreens Boots Alliance in the 30-stock Dow Jones index, was down 1.95% to US$174.12. The S&P 500’s information technology sector was down more than 2%.
The latest Global Dairy Trade auction index fell 2.3% following four consecutive rises. Whole milk powder declined 2.8% to US$3286 per metric tonne, and skim milk powder was down 5.2% to US$2640 a tonne.
On the NZ market
At home, Mercury Energy increased 15c or 2.14% to $7.15, eclipsing its previous peak of $7.13 set on Jan 1, 2021.
In the property sector, Goodman Trust rose 8c or 3.64% to $2.28; Vital Healthcare Trust gained 5.4c or 2.7% to $2.07; Stride increased 4c or 3.17% to $1.30; Argosy added 1.5c to $1.12; and Property for Industry was up 3c to $2.225.
Leading stock Fisher and Paykel Healthcare turned around from an intraday low of $24.01 and gained 6c to $24.75, while Mainfreight was up 25c to $68 after reaching $67.01 during the day.
Meridian Energy declined 8c to $5.92; Contact also decreased 8c to $8.22; Ebos Group was down 22c to $36.43; Skellerup shed 6c to $4.35; and Napier Port fell 7c or 2.81% to $2.42.
Infratil increased 18c or 1.74% to $10.52; Summerset Group was up 15c to $11.25; a2 Milk gained 7c to $6.18; Seeka rose 14c or 5.28% to $2.79; Ventia Services added 7c to a new high of $4.17; and Arvida Group collected 2c or 2.04% to $1.
McConnochie said a broker research report, following Infratil’s investor day, headlined the reinvestment opportunities and growth for the company.
Other gainers were Blackpearl Group, rising 3c or 5.26% to 60c; CDL Investments, increasing 5c or 7.14% to 75c; and Pacific Edge, picking up 0.008c or 9.3% to 9.4c.
Amongst the decliners, Winton Land was down 7c or 2.94% to $2.31; Michael Hill decreased 3c or 4% to 72c; T&G Global shed 4c or 2.25% to $1.74; Eroad gave up 2c or 2.53% to 77c; and NZ Oil and Gas was down 2c or 4.55%to 42c.
Technology firm ikeGPS gained 2c or 4.44% to 47c after telling the market it has signed a $800,000 three-year subscription agreement with another Fortune 500 company that has four million customers on the United States East Coast.
Since launching the PoleForeman monitoring product last year, ikeGPS has signed more than 30 customers, representing total contract value of $6m. Metro Performance Glass fell 1.5c or 12% to 11c after revising its full-year operating earnings (Ebit) to $7m-$8m compared with $11.8m in the 2023 financial year.
Metro has just closed its Wellington glass processing factory and a regional branch in Auckland, as well as reducing staff in NZ by 10%.
Metro said the sale of Australia Glass Group to reduce debt is taking longer than expected.
MHM Automation was delisted from the NZX following the completion of the takeover by United States-based Bettcher Industries.
| « Rebound in property stocks helps lift NZ sharemarket | NZ sharemarket has third consecutive rise this week » |
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Not quite, getting to $7.20 before closing at $7.15. On closing prices alone, Mercury Energy hit $7.39 on 8 January 2021, coincident with the New Zealand sharemarket's peak.