Market Announcements
Market Summary
Modest gains in some of the large-cap stocks and signs of life in the property sector helped propel the New Zealand share market to end firmer in light trade on Friday. The S&P/NZX 50 Index was 62.33 points, or 0.46%, higher at 13,514.09, with 37.1 million shares worth $122.2m trading. There were 97 rises and 48 falls on the main board.
The index was driven higher mostly by gains in Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, up 47c or 1.26% at $37.75 and Infratil, up 30c or 2.43% at $12.67.
Markets are preparing for this Wednesday’s official cash rate (OCR) review from the Reserve Bank and have fully priced in a 25-basis-point fall to 2.75%, with an outside chance of a 50-basis-point cut.
Kiwi Property firmed 2c or 1.9% to $1.08 while the S&P/NZX All Real Estate Index firmed 20.4 points or 1.11% to end at 1861.77. SkyCity Entertainment Group, which had been languishing after a poorly supported capital raise, firmed 4.5 to 71.5c.
On the downside, a2 Milk dropped 35c or 3.37% to $10.05, and Auckland International Airport fell 9c (1.1%) to $7.91. The Warehouse ended 1c down at 79c after reporting a disappointing annual result last week. The broadly breakeven outcome was largely as expected, but still a letdown in light of The Warehouse’s $3.1 billion in reported sales and almost $1b in gross profit.
Source: Business Desk
Australian Market Report
Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 49 points higher at 9045.
- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market is within striking distance of record highs as "Goldilocks" market conditions continue to fuel investors' buy orders.
The S&P/ASX200 rose 41.5 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 8,987.4, on Friday as the broader All Ordinaries gained 47.8 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 9,288.1.
"There's a kind of 'buy-everything' mantra still going through risk assets more broadly with this continued Goldilocks scenario playing through for a lot of the equity indices, including our own," Pepperstone head of research Chris Weston told AAP.
"We've probably gotten less of a tailwind from rate cuts, but even as fewer rate cuts have been priced, this was justified by signs of stronger private sector growth ... and that's not a bad thing for earnings."
The top-200 was up 2.3 per cent from the previous Friday in its best weekly gain since it rebounded in early May from the "Liberation Day" tariff announcement sell-off.
Eight of 11 local sectors traded higher, led by IT stocks, health-care plays and with decent upticks in the heavyweight financials and materials segments.
Strength in Australia's IT sector followed a fresh record on Wall Street's tech-heavy Nasdaq overnight, after ChatGPT owner OpenAI reached a $US500 billion ($A758 billion) valuation following a share sale.
The raw materials sector finished the week 2.6 per cent higher and is hovering at its highest level since the beginning of 2024, after gold reset its record value multiple times and copper soared to a two-month high.
BHP has clawed back most of its losses since reports of a Chinese blockade on some of its iron ore cargo prompted a $5 billion (down 2.5 per cent) sell-off on Wednesday.
It is now trading roughly one per cent short of Tuesday's close at $42.08 per share.
Investors took some profits on gold on Friday - the precious metal has eased roughly 0.9 per cent from its new all-time high at just below $US3,900 ($A5,910) an ounce.
The bourse's largest gold miner Northern Star shaved 1.7 per cent to $24.41, but was up 7.5 per cent for the week and has swollen by more than half in 2025 to a market cap of $36 billion.
Financial stocks rallied three per cent since Monday, snapping a two-week losing streak and edging the sector within roughly 0.3 per cent of its record close, which originally raised eyebrows over potentially frothy bank valuations when it was reached back in mid-August.
The segment is currently valued at more than $950 billion and accounts for almost a third of the Australian share market's total value.
Energy stocks and utilities have been under continued pressure ahead of an OPEC+ meeting at the weekend, with markets betting on further output hikes and sending oil prices to four-month lows.
Health-care stocks snapped a six-week losing streak to bounce more than four per cent since Monday, but the segment has lost roughly a sixth of its value since blood plasma giant CSL's disastrous earnings call in August.
Cryptocurrency Bitcoin has rebounded from its recent lows in a typically volatile fashion, jumping roughly 10 per cent in five sessions to trade at $US119,930 ($181,640).
The Australian dollar is buying 65.98 US cents, down from 66.19 US cents on Thursday at 5pm, but the Aussie was broadly stronger against most major currencies across the week.
ON THE ASX:
The S&P/ASX200 rose 41.5 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 8,987.4
The broader All Ordinaries gained 47.8 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 9,288.1
The NZX 50 Lost -18.23 points (-0.14%) to 13495.86
Overseas Market Report
[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:
U.S. stocks ended mixed. The DJIA lifted 0.5% to 46,758.28, the S&P 500 was unchanged at 6,715.79 and the Nasdaq fell 0.3% to 22,780.51.
Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Humana Inc HUM surging 10.56%, Centene Corp CNC jumped 5.11%, and The Cigna Group CI lifted 4.72%.
The biggest decliners were Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR which dropped 7.45%, Las Vegas Sands Corp LVS fell 7.38%, and Wynn Resorts Ltd WYNN lost 7.26%.
Asia
Chinese shares closed higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.5% to 3,882.78 and the Shenzhen Composite Index added 0.4% to 2,519.42.
Hong Kong shares ended lower. The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 0.5% to 27,140.92.
Japanese shares ended higher. The Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.9% to 45,769.50.
India shares ended higher. The BSE SENSEX climbed 0.3% to 81,207.17.
Europe
Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index lifted 0.7% to 9,491.25. In Europe, shares closed mixed. The Germany's DAX dropped 0.2% to 24,378.80, and the France's CAC 40 gained 0.3% to 8,081.54
