Market Announcements
Market Summary
The New Zealand sharemarket closed up on Thursday, driven by the exchange’s largest companies and positive market updates from Skellerup and Vista Group.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index closed up 0.53% or 70.662 points to 13,377.10 after 43.6 million shares worth $146.8m were traded.
The S&P/NZX 20 index was up 0.43%, closing at 7673.63 points, while the S&P/NZX 10 index ended the day at 12,761.47 after rising 0.58%.
There were 84 gainers and 61 decliners on the main board.
‘Mixed bag’
The market was up after a “mixed bag” of lead-ins from overseas. Markets have run into a few minor headwinds after a strong period according to analysts.
NZ is certainly outperforming other markets in the region. Aussies are up, but much less than NZ. The Nikkei in Japan is down a little over 1%, the S&P500 was slightly off overnight, while the UK was one of the few markets to be up.
Skellerup Holdings held its annual general meeting on Thursday, with the rubber manufacturer’s earnings lifting by 10% in the first quarter of 2026.
The business said demand for its products was robust and called out dairy and infrastructure as notable contributors.
“$55 million to $60 million midpoint is in line with where analysts were expecting. The stock is up because it’s a bit of confirmation that analysts weren’t off the mark.”
“You could have expected their guidance to be a little soft because of the tariff impact, but they’re managing to absorb that tariff hit and still making decent results, which is great to see.”
Skellerup’s share price lifted 1.36% or 7c to $5.20 after 144,980 shares changed hands on turnover worth $754,035.08.
Other stocks
Elsewhere, Vista Group gave a third-quarter update, advising that despite the box office experiencing some softness, year-on-year revenue growth continued.
Vista Group’s share price rallied 7.03%, up 18c to $2.74. Heartland Group lifted 3c to $1.09 after trading on high volume, with 1.7m shares changing hands on turnover worth $1.8m.
Scales Corporation lifted 2.88% or 17c to $6.07, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare lifted 2.14% or 75c to $35.75, while Meridian Energy fell 0.84% or 5c to $5.93.
Analysts and investors were keeping a close eye on the next 10 days, which will feature the latest data on US inflation, as well as results from five of the “magnificent seven”: Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta.
Gold prices sank further on Wednesday while major stock markets mostly fell following some disappointing corporate earnings amid lingering worries over trade tensions.
Major US indices fell, with the Dow retreating from a record the prior day, as lacklustre results from Netflix added to angst that upcoming reports from other tech giants may also fall short.
“Any time you’ve got stocks that are priced with high expectations, if you’re not meeting those expectations, then the market is going to struggle with that,” Dave Grecsek, a partner at wealth management firm Aspirant, said.
More broadly, the market is wondering if “we are overextended here in this artificial intelligence trade,” he added.
Most European equity indices also fell following declines in leading Asian markets earlier.
Source: BusinessDesk
Australian Market Report
Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 13 points higher at 9040.
- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market has pared early losses to edge slightly higher, as a strong energy sector and a mining rebound kept the market above water.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 closed 2.8 points higher on Thursday, up 0.03 per cent to 9,032.8, as the broader All Ordinaries gained eight points, or 0.09 per cent, to 9,329.1.
Energy stocks rallied more than three per cent after US sanctions on Russian oil prices lit a match under crude prices and as a Woodside gas deal provided a springboard for the segment's biggest company.
"The ASX 200 had that little early wobble below 9000 and it has bounced back rather well, with the energy sector the main driver there," IG Markets analyst Tony Sycamore told AAP.
Woodside's deal with US gas infrastructure provider Williams helped send its shares more than four per cent higher to $24.17, while Santos (down 2.2 per cent) and Ampol (up 4.1 per cent) also posted solid gains.
"Elsewhere, we've had banks mostly lower and a mixed day for the big mining stocks, while gold stocks have bounced back," Mr Sycamore said.
Gold miners clawed back some of the previous session's losses after the precious metal's record-breaking run hit a brick wall on Tuesday night, prompting its sharpest single-day drop since 2013.
Northern Star and Evolution Mining rebounded two per cent each, amounting to less than a third of their respective losses from Wednesday.
Spot gold was changing hands at $US4,108 ($A6,329) an ounce at 5pm, just over six per cent short of recent record highs.
Critical minerals and rare earths producers caught a bid in a rocky week's trade since the announcement of Australia's crucial minerals deal with the US.
Iluka Resources and Lynas Rare Earths each gained more than three per cent, while lithium plays Liontown and Pilbara Minerals jumped more than four per cent.
Of the large-cap miners, Fortescue shares rallied 2.4 per cent to $20.84 on solid quarterly production results, Rio Tinto slipped 0.4 per cent and BHP lost 1.2 per cent after offering investors little new at its annual general meeting.
The heavyweight financials sector tumbled 0.8 per cent as CBA (down 1.4 per cent) led the big four lower, its shares trading at $171.66.
Insurers were broadly stronger after IAG posted strong results in the first quarter, which had been "benign" on the natural disaster front.
Buy-now, pay-later provider Zip Co has plunged more than 13 per cent in three sessions to $4.02 as investors took profit after the company upped its revenue projections earlier in the week.
Zip's share price is up more than 200 per cent since April.
Silex Systems was the top 200's best performer, surging almost nine per cent after winning a third-party validation of its laser-based uranium enrichment technology.
At the other end of the table was Perpetual Asset Management, which tumbled 4.3 per cent after chair Greg Cooper urged shareholders not to believe everything they read in the media, rather than directly reject reports Oaktree is considering ditching plans to buy Perpetual's wealth business.
Rebel Sport owner Super Retail Group also tumbled, down four per cent after it flagged softening sales growth in a quarterly update.
The Australian dollar is buying 64.92 US cents, down slightly from 65.04 US cents on Wednesday at 5pm.
ON THE ASX:
The S&P/ASX200 rose 2.8 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 9,032.8
The broader All Ordinaries gained eight points, or 0.09 per cent, to 9,329.1
The NZX 50 Lost -23.56 points (-0.18%) to 13353.54
Companies Holding Annual General Meeting (ASX 300):
Amotiv Limited
EVT Limited
Macmahon Holdings Limited
Supply Network Limited
Overseas Market Report
[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:
U.S. stocks ended higher. The DJIA added 0.3% to 46,734.61, the S&P 500 lifted 0.6% to 6,738.44 and the Nasdaq rose 0.9% to 22,941.80.
Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Dow Inc DOW surging 13.02%, Las Vegas Sands Corp LVS jumped 12.41%, and West Pharmaceutical Services Inc WST lifted 10.87%.
The biggest decliners were Molina Healthcare Inc MOH which dropped 17.49%, Super Micro Computer Inc SMCI fell 8.72%, and United Rentals Inc URI lost 7.79%.
Asia
Chinese shares closed higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lifted 0.2% to 3,922.41 and the Shenzhen Composite Index added 0.2% to 2,457.90.
Hong Kong shares ended higher. The benchmark Hang Seng Index gained 0.7% to 25,967.98.
Japanese shares ended lower. The Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.4% to 48,641.61.
India shares ended higher. The BSE SENSEX gained 0.2% to 84,556.40.
Europe
Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index added 0.7% to 9,578.57. In Europe, shares closed higher. The Germany's DAX gained 0.2% to 24,207.79, and the France's CAC 40 lifted 0.2% to 8,225.78
