Market Announcements
Market Summary
The New Zealand sharemarket drifted lower in light trading on Friday, the highlight of the day being a strong result from clothing retailer Hallenstein Glasson. The S&P/NZX 50 Index was 42.06 points or 0.32% lower at 13,111.73, with 30 million shares worth $134.1m trading. There were 78 rises and 65 falls on the main board.
In the big picture, there were renewed concerns about US tariffs after President Donald Trump said the Government would impose 100% tariffs on pharmaceutical products. Across the Tasman, shares in CSL, Australia’s biggest healthcare manufacturer, dropped on the news before recovering ground.
Elsewhere among the big-cap stocks, Ryman Healthcare, which this week confirmed it plans to dual-list on the ASX in October, gained 10c to $2.50. An ASX foreign exempt listing is expected to provide streamlined compliance for Ryman while broadening access to Australian and international investors.
Shares in infant formula marketer a2 Milk were sharply lower at one point but ended the day down just 3c at $9.62.
Fonterra’s units ended up 10c at $7.91, having more than doubled in price over the last two years. The co-op this week reported a net profit of $1.08 billion, down slightly from the previous year due to a higher tax bill, but announced a strong dividend. Fonterra has a big presence on the economy but only a small weighting on the benchmark index.
Hallenstein Glasson gained 5c to $8.95 but was off its highs after reporting a 14.4% lift in net profit to $39.4m for the year to Aug 1.
Insurance company Tower was up 1.5c to $1.73 after announcing a new partnership with Westpac NZ to provide general insurance products to the bank’s retail customers, from July 2026.
Source: Business Desk
Australian Market Report
Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 14 points higher at 8810.
- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market has finished the week with a shrug, closing roughly where it began after a mining sector rally dug the bourse out of trouble elsewhere.
The S&P/ASX200 edged 14.7 points higher on Friday, up 0.17 per cent, to 8,787.7, as the broader All Ordinaries gained 15.8 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 9,079.2.
With the exception of Wednesday's sharp sell-off it was a quiet week for the top-200, which closed roughly 15 points higher.
Caution from the US Federal Reserve and a hotter-than-expected local inflation had investors recalibrating their expectations for interest rate cuts into year-end.
While markets may have overreacted to the partial consumer price index data, it raised questions about whether the Reserve Bank had doused the flames of inflation in Australia, Capital.com market analyst Kyle Rodda said.
"The markets aren't now fully pricing-in a rate cut until the start of next year, even though we have got this sort of deterioration of the labour market," he told AAP.
"So that's been one of the reasons we've been quite down on momentum in the ASX 200 this week with the exception of Wednesday."
The materials segment rose more than five per cent during the week on the back of strong gold and copper prices, while energy (+1.4 per cent) and utilities stocks (+0.3 per cent) also managed to carve out gains since Monday's open.
Four of the 11 local sectors closed higher on Friday, with the heavyweight financials, up 0.5 per cent and mining stocks, up 0.9 per cent, responsible for the positive finish.
BHP and Rio Tinto each surged more than six per cent each for the week, thanks in part to a rally in copper prices after a landslide in Indonesia prompted a major supply disruption.
Silver topped a 14-year high as gold loomed roughly one per cent below its fresh record of $US3,791 ($A5,800) an ounce set on Tuesday.
Health care stocks tumbled 1.4 per cent ( down 2.6 per cent for the week) after US President Donald Trump announced his 100 per cent tariffs on branded or patented pharmaceuticals.
Shares in blood plasma giant CSL fell 1.9 per cent, while Telix Pharmaceuticals and Mesoblast each tumbled more than three per cent despite assuring shareholders they were exempt from the tariffs.
Cryptocurrencies continued to sell off this week, with Bitcoin down almost seven per cent since last Friday to $US109,450 ($A167,465) and roughly 12 per cent down from August's all-time highs, hinting investor appetite for risk could be fading.
"I think it's sending some alarms potentially that sentiment is starting to turn," Mr Rodda said.
"There is this tendency for crypto to be a bit of a leading indicator for where stocks go next, so it might be a bit of a 'watch this space' kind of moment."
The Australian dollar is buying 65.36 US cents, slipping from 65.93 since Thursday at 5pm after US economic growth showed signs of resilience, softening the case for interest rate cuts.
ON THE ASX:
The S&P/ASX200 rose 14.7 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 8,787.7
The broader All Ordinaries gained 15.8 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 9,079.2
The NZX 50 Lost -0.12 points (0.00%) to 13111.61
Overseas Market Report
[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:
U.S. stocks ended higher. The DJIA gained 0.7% to 46,247.29, the S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to 6,643.70 and the Nasdaq lifted 0.4% to 22,484.07.
Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Electronic Arts Inc EA surging 14.87%, PACCAR Inc PCAR jumped 5.16%, and CDW Corp CDW lifted 4.71%.
The biggest decliners were Costco Wholesale Corp COST which dropped 2.90%, Oracle Corp ORCL fell 2.70%, and eBay Inc EBAY lost 2.12%.
Asia
Chinese shares closed lower. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.7% to 3,828.11 and the Shenzhen Composite Index declined 1.5% to 2,470.73.
Hong Kong shares ended lower. The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 1.3% to 26,128.20.
Japanese shares ended lower. The Nikkei Stock Average dropped 0.9% to 45,354.99.
India shares ended lower. The BSE SENSEX declined 0.9% to 80,426.46.
Europe
Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index climbed 0.8% to 9,284.83. In Europe, shares closed higher. The Germany's DAX lifted 0.9% to 23,739.47, and the France's CAC 40 added 1% to 7,870.68
