Market Announcements
Market Summary
The New Zealand sharemarket had a small fall on lighter trading as investors remained on edge over the negotiations for a Middle East peace settlement. The S&P/NZX 50 Index was up sharply in the morning, reaching 13,548.96, but slipped in the afternoon to close at 13,446.05, down 49.58 points or 0.37%. There were 56 gainers and 83 decliners on the main board with 31.2 million shares worth $109.7m changing hands.
Iran declared the Hormuz Strait closed again because of the Israeli strikes in Lebanon, and the Iranian negotiators walked out of the talks in Switzerland because of comments from US President Donald Trump. In its economic weekly report, ASB said geopolitical headlines will dominate for a while still, and “while our hope is that things get solved before they get worse, the ice on the Swiss Alps looks to be thinning”. The Brent Crude oil price remained below US$80 (NZ$139.69), trading at US$78.981 per barrel (6pm NZ time). Embedded in the Reserve Bank of NZ (RBNZ) forecasts for the Official Cash Rate (OCR) was an oil price higher than what it is now.
Infant formula supplier a2 Milk increased 14c or 1.73% to $8.25 after telling the market it has approval to add two more products in the China market later this year, and it will soon be paying a $300m special dividend. A2 Milk’s share price reached an intraday high of $9.01, and it has risen more than 10% over the last two trading days. The company acquired two Chinese label infant milk formula product registrations when it bought the Pōkeno production facility, and the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has approved rebranding them to a2. Managing director David Bortolussi said the SAMR approval “marks a significant milestone in our China growth strategy and supply chain transformation.” A2 Milk said its board will meet soon to declare a $300m special dividend that will be fully franked and unimputed.
Fletcher Building increased 16c or 5.03% to $3.34; ikeGPS was up 5c or 3.97% to $1.31; Metro Performance Glass improved 4.5c or 3.45% to $1.35; The Warehouse increased 2c or 3.45% to 60c; and Steel & Tube rose 2c or 6.06% to 35c.
The energy sector fell 2.17% on the NZX. Meridian declined 13c or 2.16% to $5.90; Mercury decreased 10c to $6.89; Contact was down 14c to $9.55; and Vector shed 13c or 2.61% to $4.85. Spark was down 4c or 2.15% to $1.82; Mainfreight eased 45c to $60.70; SkyCity declined 2.5c or 4.31% to 55.5c; Gentrack fell 19c or 4.91% to $3.68; and Scott Technology shed 9c or 3.44% to $2.53. In the property sectors, Goodman NZ declined 5c or 2.33% to $2.10; Argosy was down 1.5c to $1.06; and Stride eased 1.5c to $1.13. Turners Automotive decreased 17c or 1.98% to $8.42; Scales Cop was down 13c or 2.04% to $6.25; Air NZ declined 2c or 4.21% to 45.5c; and Tourism Holdings shed 5c or 1.92% to $2.55.
Ryman was down 2c to $2.25; Summerset eased 5c to $8.50; and Oceania was up 0.005c to 75.5c after launching a $100m, six-year bond offer with the ability to accept up to $25m in oversubscriptions.
Source: Business Desk
Australian Market Report
Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 28 points higher at 8875.
- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market has had a bland session as investors weighed progress in US-Iran peace talks, while the local IT sector was hit by a significant stock plunge.
The S&P/ASX200 fell 12.6 points on Monday, down 0.14 per cent, to 8,816.1, as the broader All Ordinaries lost 16.1 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 9,031.2.
A dip in oil prices wasn't enough to send the bourse higher, as the US and Iran agreed to a road map towards a final peace deal within 60 days.
"The S&P/ASX200 index spent much of today treading water, finishing little changed as investors weighed a tentative Strait of Hormuz agreement against the reality that geopolitical deals are often signed faster than they are honoured," Global X ETFs senior product and investment strategist Marc Jocum said.
Crude prices are back to where they were mid-last week, despite spiking overnight after US President Donald Trump threatened further attacks, prompting Iran to claim it had re-closed the Hormuz Strait.
Financials carved a 0.5 per cent improvement, led by strong insurer performances, while the big four banks eked modest gains ahead of key inflation and jobs data due later in the week.
The materials sector was sluggish, as BHP continued its slump since flagging a cost blowout and impairment charge relating to its Jansen potash project in Canada.
Fellow mega miners Fortescue and Rio Tinto were also in the red as copper and iron ore futures struggled to rebound from recent weakness.
Gold stocks helped counterbalance some of the weakness in miners elsewhere, the All Ordinaries gold sub-index advancing 1.8 per cent as the precious metal recovered to around $US4,200 ($A5,999) an ounce.
IT stocks weighed on the local exchange, down 4.2 per cent as WiseTech shares plummeted 16 per cent on reports the Australian Federal Police were investigating executive chair and billionaire co-founder Richard White over claims he exploited a woman's financial and immigration status.
Both WiseTech and the AFP declined to comment on the matter, and AAP is not suggesting of any wrongdoing by Mr White, only that the allegations have been reported.
"I feel for WiseTech, I feel like they just can't seem to shake the fallout from the former CEO, now executive chairman, but it just feels like we've got to the point where you need to cut the umbilical cord there and say goodbye to him once and for all, for the sake of everybody," ??IG market analyst Tony Sycamore told AAP.
In other company news, Humm shares lost more than a fifth of their value after Credit Corp ditched plans to buy the consumer credit fintech.
Inghams lost almost five per cent after locking down its farms and processing operations in Western Australia, following the first documented case of H5N1 bird flu on Australian soil.
The Australian dollar is buying 70.04 US cents, down from 70.12 US cents on Friday at 5pm.
ON THE ASX:
The S&P/ASX200 fell 12.6 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 8,816.1
The broader All Ordinaries lost 16.1 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 9,031.2
The NZX 50 added 34.46 points (0.26%) to 13480.51
Overseas Market Report
[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:
U.S. stocks ended mixed. The DJIA climbed 0.3% to 51,712.71, the S&P 500 dropped 0.4% to 7,472.79 and the Nasdaq slipped 1.3% to 26,166.60.
Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Super Micro Computer Inc SMCI surging 15.66%, Coherent Corp COHR jumped 9.22%, and ON Semiconductor Corp ON lifted 8.16%.
The biggest decliners were Moderna Inc MRNA which dropped 7.22%, Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR fell 6.98%, and VeriSign Inc VRSN lost 6.40%.
Asia
Chinese shares closed higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.8% to 4,163.10 and the Shenzhen Composite Index added 1.7% to 2,901.82.
Hong Kong shares ended lower. The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 0.7% to 23,768.52.
Japanese shares ended higher. The Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.5% to 72,353.96.
India shares ended higher. The BSE SENSEX added 0.4% to 77,094.07.
Europe
Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index gained 0.7% to 10,437.85. In Europe, shares closed mixed. The Germany's DAX rose 0.6% to 25,139.69, and the France's CAC 40 declined 0.2% to 8,400.11
