by Paul McBeth
New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 index joined a rally across Asia as investors were cheered by yet another record quarter for chip giant Nvidia, while OpenAI accelerates its push to going public, SpaceX filed its initial public offering paperwork and Anthropic was said to be on track to turn a quarterly profit for the first time.
Infratil powered gains on the local board with the data centre and renewable energy investor set to benefit from the latest tailwind for the artificial intelligence sector, while Contact Energy held above its sale price in its resumption of trading after Infratil sold down its stake in the generator-retailer.
Tower posted the steepest decline on the day after a stormy summer knocked the insurer’s first-half earnings and Turners Automotive Group dipped despite its latest record profit, while AFT Pharmaceuticals and My Food Bag’s respective results were well-received.
And Financial Markets Authority chief executive Samantha Barrass said she won’t seek another term in charge of the watchdog when her time ends in January next year.
Back and forth
The NZX50 climbed 117.04 points, or 0.9%, to 12,878.07, with 30 stocks gaining, 17 declining and three unchanged. The S&P/NZX 20 index futures contract for June gained 1.4% to 7,339 with 555 lots traded for a value of $4.1 million. The NZX20 rose 1% to 7,324.48.
Turnover across the main board was $692.9 million, of which Contact Energy accounted for $535 million as it resumed trading after yesterday’s $495 million block trade when Infratil sold a 5% stake in the gentailer.
Infratil touched an all-time high $16.14 to end the day up 4% at $15.90 amid a buoyant mood for AI-linked companies after Nvidia’s latest record result was part of a flurry of news. SpaceX lifted the veil on its IPO plans and there were reports that OpenAI planned to list in New York as early as September and that Anthropic was on track to eclipse the ChatGPT maker’s valuation with an operating profit predicted for the June quarter.
Meanwhile, The Australian’s DataRoom reported the sale process of Australian radiology business Qscan – which Infratil controls – is nearing a conclusion and expected to change hands for more than $800 million.
That underpinned the local gains in a broadly stronger day, with stock markets up across Asia as bond yields fell and oil prices eased from their elevated levels. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index jumped 1.7% in late trading and Japan’s Nikkei 225 index surged 3.5%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up a more muted 0.1%.
“It’s a pretty broad-based rally on our market for the day,” said Oliver Mander, chief executive of the New Zealand Shareholders’ Association.
Serko led New Zealand’s NZX50 higher, climbed 6.9% to $1.55, while Mainfreight advanced 4% to $55.65 and Port of Tauranga gained 3.4% to $8.34.
Meridian Energy was the standout among the gentailers as it gained 2.1% to $5.91, the only power company to gain after Contact’s block trade.
Not so unexpected
Meanwhile, Tower posted the biggest fall on the day, sliding 7.9% to near six-week low $1.925 after reporting a 40% slide in first-half earnings from a strong prior period and as stormy weather lifted claims.
Mander said the insurer had signalled the current financial year’s earnings would be crimped by the summer storms around the country, and that the weaker result wasn’t unexpected.
Turners Automotive Group dipped 0.1% to $8.58 after reporting another record result, with a 14% lift in dividends to 33 cents per share.
Investore Property dipped 0.5% to $1.03 after the big-box retail landlord posted a small increase in annual distributable profit, paying a 6.5 cents per share dividend in line with expectations, a level it said it expected to repeat in the March 2027 year.
Outside the benchmark index, AFT climbed 7.7% to $3.80 after reporting record earnings and a 22% lift in annual revenue, with a 2.5 cents per share dividend up from 1.8 cents a year earlier.
My Food Bag jumped 11% to a three-year high 29.5 cents after posting a small increase in revenue and profit, and declaring a final dividend of 1.15 cents per share.
Blis Technologies gained 13%, or 0.2 of a cent, to 1.7 cents as annual earnings bounced back from a disrupted prior year.
The kiwi dollar rose to 58.64 US cents at 5pm in Auckland from 58.30 cents yesterday on the broadly upbeat tone in global markets. Statistics New Zealand figures today showed the annual trade deficit narrowed to $2.8 billion in the 12 months ended April 30 from a year earlier. The kiwi traded at 82.27 Australian cents from 82.09 cents after the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 4.5% across the Tasman, with the number of jobs shrinking for the first time this year.
Paul is a staff writer for Good Returns based in Wellington.
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