NZ sharemarket rallies on index changes, confidence survey
New Zealand share prices rallied after a raft of index changes for key stocks and a strong business confidence survey helped boost sentiment.
Friday, December 19th 2025, 6:46PM
by BusinessDesk
The S&P/NZX 50 Index gained 76.63 points (0.58%) to 13,333.40 after being up by almost 100 points at one stage.
Turnover was heavy with 101.5 million shares, worth $358.11 million trading, reflecting funds re-weighting their portfolios in line with index changes.
There were 85 rises and 55 falls on the main board.
Japan pushes rates up
As expected, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) raised short-term interest rates to their highest level in 30 years to combat inflation after decades of deflation.
The bank raised its policy rate by 0.25 percentage points to around 0.75%.
Salt Funds managing director Matt Goodson said 2026 would show an interesting “dispersion” among the central banks.
“Australia may well have to hike, possibly as early as February, and quite likely by May, and the Bank of England cut last night,” he said.
He noted the European Central Bank had remained on hold and US Federal Reserve had cut this month and may well cut again early next year.
NZ rate hike foreshadowed
The market is pricing in a New Zealand rate hike – perhaps later next year – but Goodson said there was a good chance the official cash rate would remain at 2.25%.
“There are going to be quite different monetary policy directions next year, which could lead to quite different foreign currency movements,” he said.
The BoJ’s move could also influence the Japan “carry trade” where Japanese investors use cheap money to invest, unhedged, offshore – often in property or high-yielding securities.
Then there were the foreign investors who borrowed in Japan at very low rates and invested back in their home markets, also without currency hedges in place.
“That carry trade will be under more and more pressure,” Goodson said. “It’s potentially quite important for investment markets more broadly.”
NZ market busy
Locally, index upweightings to the NZSX50 added fizz and volume to the market.
Vital Healthcare increased its index weighting after its recent equity raising, and it was a similar story for SkyCity and Precinct.
Vital, which is also due to enter one of the FTSE ESPA Nareit indices, ended the day down 3.5c at $1.94 with 18.6 million shares trading.
SkyCity gained 4c to 89c with 7.6 million shares trading while Precinct dropped a cent to $1.16 with 14.6 million shares going through.
Business confidence up
News that the ANZ’s business confidence reading hit its highest level in 30 years in December helped buoy the market.
ANZ said a net 74% of respondents expected better business conditions, up seven points.
Businesses’ expected “own activity” rose seven points to net 61%, also its highest level in 30 years.
“Historically, it’s been a pretty good forward indicator for GDP growth six to 12 months down the track,” Goodson said.
“That’s a very encouraging survey for the economy,” he said.
NZX operator up on deal
Exchange operator NZX gained 2c to $1.50 after announcing that NZX Wealth Technologies (NZXWT) had done a deal with Craigs to extend the services NZXWT provides Craigs to include Craigs’ custody and private wealth business.
NZXWT has administered Craigs’ clients investing in mySTART, Craigs KiwiSaver and Craigs Superannuation on the platform since 2018.
Among the big names to gain were Fisher and Paykel Healthcare up 19c to $37.10, Ebos up 60c to $27.53 and Infratil up 28c at $10.98.
Among the smaller issues, Eroad rallied by nine cents to $1.20.
Trade Window, which listed on the ASX today, dropped 2 to 29c.
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