NZ Sharemarket Ends Up Again, End Of Year In Sight

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the Morning Report will resume in the New Year.

The Christmas Trading hours are:

Yesterday trading volumes fell, and stand-out price movements were few and far between as the holiday mood descended on a listless New Zealand sharemarket. The S&P/NZX 50 Index was up and down all day and closed at 13,517.73, a small gain of 9.43 points or 0.07% after reaching an intraday low of 13,488.28. While people flooded the shops and supermarkets for last-minute Christmas goods and gifts, trading hit one of its lowest levels of the year, with 26.5 million shares worth $91.7m changing hands.  There were 74 gainers and 63 decliners on the main board.

All the action was again on Wall Street, with technology stocks connected to artificial intelligence bouncing back.  Across the Tasman, Santa Claus came to the S&P/ASX 200 with the index rising 1.17% to 8,801.6 points at 6pm NZ time.

Back home, Chorus increased 19c or 2.05% to $9.48; Freightways added 16c to $14.05; Meridian Energy was up 9c to $5.65; and Turners Automotive picked up 15c or 1.84% to $8.30, and it has risen nearly 57% over the past year. The banking groups had a good day, with Westpac rising $1.04, or 2.34%, to $45.45, and ANZ gaining 71c to $42.40. Fletcher Building fell 11c or 2.96% to $3.60; Mainfreight decreased 55c to $68; and SkyCity was down 1.5c to 88.5c. Ebos Group bounced around between $27.70 and $28.58 before closing at $27.99, down 7c. Hallenstein Glasson decreased 13c to $9.77; T&G Global declined 12c or 5.11% to $2.23; and Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund was down 18c or 2.18% to $8.07 as farmgate milk payment forecasts are revised downwards.

Other gainers were Michael Hill up 2.5c or 6.58% to 40.5c; Vista Group gaining 5c or 1.98% to $2.58; Colonial Motor increasing 18c or 2.15% to $8.55; Sanford adding 15c or 2.13% to $7.20; and Minerals Exploration rising 3.5c or 17.95% to 23c.

Genesis Energy, down 1c to $2.40, has a conditional 15-year power purchase agreement with owner Yinson Renewables for the 94.6MW Mt Cass Wind Farm near Waipara in Canterbury, which is scheduled to be completed in 2028 after construction begins early next year. Genesis will buy 70% of the electricity generated by the wind farm, which has a capacity of more than 300GWh a year, enough to power 40,000 households.

Chatham Rock Phosphate, shedding 0.001c to 6c, is selling its Australian subsidiary Avenir Makatea to Melbourne-based Austure Industries for A$1.4m (NZ$1.6m) – made up of A$900,000 cash over 24 months and a 20% shareholding in Austure Phosphate. Chatham will send its rock phosphate from the Queensland Korella North Mine to Austure’s manufacturing plant for production into dicalcium and monocalcium phosphate.

Source: Business Desk

Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 12 points lower at 8797.

- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market has surged to six-week highs, buoyed by Santa rally hopes and Reserve Bank minutes that were less hawkish than expected, which bolstered interest rate sensitive sectors.

The S&P/ASX200 jumped 95.8 points on Tuesday, up 1.1 per cent, to 8,795.7, as the broader All Ordinaries gained 95.5 points, or 1.06 per cent, to 9,096.2.

All 11 local sectors traded higher, led by real estate stocks, financials and consumer discretionaries and, while raw materials only lifted 0.7 per cent, gold, silver and the segment traded at record highs.

"You've got the combination of thin liquidity, you've got the Santa Claus rally, people are on holidays and the RBA minutes just weren't as hawkish as people feared," IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said.

"So it's given the green light for the market just to rip higher and that's exactly what it's done."

The heavyweight financials sector charged 1.5 per cent into the green, led by a 2.2 per cent surge in Commonwealth Bank shares, which traded above $161 for the first time in six weeks, while its big four competitors notched gains of up to 1.3 per cent.

Insurers were all broadly higher, with QBE up two per cent as it continued its buyback program.

Strong performances in iron ore miners helped lift the materials sector, as gold stocks were mixed despite the precious metal hitting a record peak of $US4,498 ($A6,746) an ounce, the ASX gold sub-industry only lifting 0.1 per cent.

Silver also reset its record, trading just below $US70 ($A105) an ounce, but it wasn't enough to stop ASX-listed explorer Silver Mines tumbling almost 23 per cent after announcing having to redo ecological surveys for its planned Bowdens mine in NSW.

Lithium producers were stronger, with Liontown and Pilbara Minerals up more than two per cent, while copper miners and rare earths stocks made modest improvements.

Real estate was the best performing sector, rocketing to seven-week highs on the back of a major data centre deal for Goodman Group, and RBA minutes that noted the volatility of monthly inflation readings, which took some of the sting out the central bank's recent hawkish pivot.

Despite investors' positive spin on the minutes, interest rates markets have remained largely unchanged, with two major US investment banks leaning towards a 25 basis point hike early in 2026's second half.

Still, the interest rate-sensitive consumer discretionary segment rallied one per cent, tracking with strength in Wesfarmers, and a continued rally for Nick Scali after Monday's guidance upgrade.

The traditionally defensive consumer staples sector was less impressive, edging 0.1 per cent higher with help from decent performances from Endeavour Group and Treasury Wine Estates.

Droneshield rocketed nine per cent to beat out the top-200, a day after promising minimum shareholding rules for senior leaders.

The inner sanctum sold $70 million in stock in November, prompting investors to dump the defence technology company, which had been (and is yet again) one of the year's best performers, up more than 300 per cent since January.

The Australian dollar is buying 66.66 US cents, up from 66.26 US cents on Monday at 5pm, as narrowing bets on incoming US interest rate cuts weighed on the greenback against the major currencies.

ON THE ASX:

The S&P/ASX200 rose 95.8 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 8,795.7

The broader All Ordinaries gained 95.5 points, or 1.06 per cent, to 9,096.2

The NZX 50 added 15.12 points (0.11%) to 13532.85

[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:

U.S. stocks ended higher. The DJIA lifted 0.2% to 48,442.41, the S&P 500 gained 0.5% to 6,909.79 and the Nasdaq rose 0.6% to 23,561.84.

Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Expand Energy Corp EXE surging 3.09%, NVIDIA Corp NVDA jumped 3.01%, and Freeport-McMoRan Inc FCX lifted 2.49%.

The biggest decliners were Moderna Inc MRNA which dropped 7.48%, First Solar Inc FSLR fell 5.36%, and Brown-Forman Corp BF.B lost 5.18%.

Asia

Chinese shares closed mixed. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.1% to 3,919.98 and the Shenzhen Composite Index was unchanged at 2,492.11.

Hong Kong shares ended lower. The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 0.1% to 25,774.14.

Japanese shares ended flat. The Nikkei Stock Average was unchanged at 50,412.87.

India shares ended flat. The BSE SENSEX was unchanged at 85,524.84.

Europe

Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index lifted 0.2% to 9,889.22. In Europe, shares closed mixed. The Germany's DAX climbed 0.2% to 24,340.06, and the France's CAC 40 dropped 0.2% to 8,103.85