Heavyweights keep NZX 50 in the green as Infratil knocked by AI woes

New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 index eked out a gain in a mixed day, as heavyweights Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Auckland International Airport buoyed the benchmark against the souring appetite for artificial intelligence-linked companies and tech firms.

Stock markets across Asia were mixed as the slide in oil prices as the US and Iran pause their recent hostilities, while South Korea’s Kospi tumbled after Nvidia’s backstop financing for an OpenAI data centre continued to unnerve investors, rippling through to local data centre investors such as Infratil and Goodman New Zealand.

Statistics New Zealand employment figures showed filled jobs growth was soft in June, with wages unlikely to fuel further inflation, while cheaper mortgage repayments helped soften the blow of more expensive petrol in the June quarter household living costs index.

And outside the benchmark index, Black Pearl Group dropped to a 28-month low as it adopted new reporting measures in its June quarter trading update to reflect its pathway to profitability, showing annualised recurring revenue rose 2% in the three-month period.