Market Announcements
Market Summary
The New Zealand sharemarket couldn’t sustain a strong lead from the rebounding United States markets and finished on a flat note yesterday, with Fonterra lowering its forecast milk payment. The S&P/NZX 50 Index reached a high of 13,571.3 in the morning after the strong day on Wall Street, but slipped in the afternoon trading to close at 13,480.43, down 19.42 points or 0.14%. There were 79 gainers and 60 decliners on the main board with 35.5 million shares worth $129.2m changing hands.
In the US the Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow were all up on Fed rate-cut hopes; Apple and Alphabet have hit record highs. Amazon announced a US$50 billion investment to expand high-performance computing and AI cloud infrastructure for US government agencies.
Back home, market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down 61c to $36.70 after reaching an intraday high of $37.70 on the eve of reporting its latest half-year financial result. Ebos Group decreased 55c or 1.9% to $28.39; Freightways was down 23c to $13.98; Fletcher Building declined 8c or 2.39% to $3.27; SkyCity eased 1.5c or 1.8% to 82c; Sanford shed 18c or 2.4% to $7.31; and Goodman Property Trust was down 4c or 1.97% to $1.99.
Gentrack gained a further 33c or 3.56% to $9.61 following its solid annual result, having risen nearly 22% in two trading days. Infratil was up 22c or 1.9% to $11.78; a2 Milk added 13c to $10.85; Oceania Healthcare improved 2c or 2.47% to $0.83; and Rakon rose 7c or 8.86% to 86c.
Fonterra Co-operative, unchanged at $5.91, has reduced its mid-point 2025.26 forecast farmgate milk price to $9.50 per kgMS, from $10, following seven consecutive price drops in recent Global Dairy Trade auctions. Fonterra said strong milk flows, here and overseas, have put downward pressure on global commodity prices. Fonterra has increased its 2025/26 forecast milk collections to 1545m KgMS, from 1525m.
Contact Energy, down 1c to $9.71, launched its Contact31 five-year growth strategy that includes an additional 250MW of geothermal generation, 500MW batteries and 500MW wind.
Cancer diagnostics company Pacific Edge declined 1.5c or 8.29% to 16.6c after reporting half-year revenue of $7.12m, down from $12.15m in the previous corresponding period, and an increased net loss of $19.2m, from $14.65. Laboratory throughput for its Cxbladder tests was down 10.1% to 13,191 for the six months. Operating revenue of $5.9m, from $10.9 million in the second half of the 2025 financial year, largely reflected the loss of Medicare coverage at the start of the period and the reduction in commercial test volumes Pacific Edge said the company was positioning itself for a recovery led by a positive update in US Medicare funding. Medicare consultant Novitas is convening the contractor advisory committee on Feb 19, and Pacific Edge expects revenue to lift in the second half after taking claims through the Medicare Appeals Process.
Genesis, down 3c to $2.45, earlier told the market it has decided to build the 238GWh Edgecumbe Solar Farm, with first generation expected in the second half of the 2027 financial year. The solar farm will have the capacity to power 29,800 homes. Fellow energy stock Vector declined 9c or 1.84% to $4.81.
Metro Performance Glass, up 0.002c or 4.26% to 4.9c, earlier reported a 5% decline in revenue to $108.1m and a 157% rise in net profit to $2.87m for the six months ending September. Net debt was reduced from $60.5m to $27.4m. Metro said the business now has a sustainable level of debt, commensurate with this stage of the economic cycle and for the business. “With the competitive pressure on our selling price, it has been crucial to fight for our market share with high service levels.”
Source: Business Desk
Australian Market Report
Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 97 points higher at 8646.
- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market has handed back most of its early gains to limp higher, as investors stalled ahead a key inflation data release.
The S&P/ASX200 rose 11.9 points on Tuesday, up 0.14 per cent, to 8,537, as the broader All Ordinaries gained 23.8 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 8,824.2.
A sell-off in the banking sector all but wiped the progress from a solid day for raw materials and IT stocks, as traders mulled an expected uptick in October inflation figures due on Wednesday.
"Financials have come under pressure and driven that move down by lunchtime, which are thematic of people looking to offload positions, and then sit on their hands the rest of the day," Pepperstone head of research Chris Weston told AAP.
"But it's not an overly bullish sign that we couldn't sustain that high seen on the open."
The financial sector is down 7.3 per cent in November and is heading for its worst monthly drop since July 2022.
The Commonwealth Bank was the weakest of the big four, its shares slipping 1.2 per cent to $153.14 and trading a few cents shy of where they began 2025.
Bendigo Bank trailed the top 200, tumbling 7.3 per cent to $10.20, after revealing weaknesses in its money laundering and anti-terrorism controls uncovered in a Deloitte review.
The raw materials sector was the best of the bourse, up 1.7 per cent as large cap miners lifted along with iron ore futures, led by Fortescue (2.7 per cent) and Rio Tinto (2.3 per cent), while BHP rose one per cent.
ASX-listed gold miners regained their shine, with Evolution and Newmont up more than 3.5 per cent each as the precious metal traded around $US4,146 ($A6,423) an ounce.
Copper plays also rallied, with Sandfire and Capstone surging 2.2 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively.
Rare earths stocks garnered some interest in the morning, but it had faded by the close as Lynas trimmed its production forecasts in the wake of multiple power outages at its Kalgoorlie processing plant.
Liontown was the best of the lithium miners, up four per cent ahead of its annual meeting on Wednesday.
Energy stocks turned a morning slump into a 0.6 per cent boost by the close, with Woodside and Santos ending roughly flat despite continued pressure on oil prices.
Elsewhere in the sector, Whitehaven led coal producers higher as it continued its buyback program, and uranium plays continued to rebound after pulling back for much of November.
Healthcare's early lift withered to a 0.2 per cent gain by the time final trades were settled, as CSL slipped 0.4 per cent to $182.14, while Ramsay Health Care outshone the top 200 to rocket 12.7 per cent higher on a guidance upgrade.
Australia's tech sector rose 1.2 per cent, up for three of the past five sessions after sliding to seven-month lows a week earlier.
Tracking software provider Life360 was a stand-out, up 6.6 per cent and continuing its recovery from a recent dip, while financial software company Iress fell 5.9 per cent after pouring water on talks of a potential acquisition.
Droneshield shares rallied 14.6 per cent to $2 after announcing a $5.2 million contract with an unnamed European reseller, welcome news for shareholders weary from a run of troubling headlines.
Cryptocurrency Bitcoin has continued a tentative recovery to above $US88,000 ($A136,300), but is still down roughly 30 per cent since October, the sell-off driven by ETF outflows, leverage flush-outs and shifting risk sentiment in the tech sector.
The Australian dollar has been steady against the greenback, buying 64.58 US cents, down slightly from 64.63 US cents on Monday at 5pm.
ON THE ASX:
The S&P/ASX200 rose 11.9 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 8,537
The broader All Ordinaries gained 23.8 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 8,824.2
The NZX 50 added 119.42 points (0.88%) to 13599.85
Companies Holding Annual General Meeting (ASX 300):
Alkane Resources Ltd
Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd
Predictive Discovery Ltd
PRL Global Ltd
Temple & Webster Group Ltd
Tyro Payments Limited
Companies commencing Ex-Dividend Trading Today (ASX 300):
ALS Limited
Graincorp Limited
Infratil Limited
Overseas Market Report
[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:
U.S. stocks ended higher. The DJIA rose 1.4% to 47,112.45, the S&P 500 gained 0.9% to 6,765.88 and the Nasdaq lifted 0.7% to 23,025.59.
Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were NVIDIA Corp NVDA surging 2.05%, Apple Inc AAPL jumped 1.63%, and Amazon.com Inc AMZN lifted 2.53%.
The biggest decliners were NVIDIA Corp NVDA which dropped 2.05%, Apple Inc AAPL fell 1.63%, and Amazon.com Inc AMZN lost 2.53%.
Asia
Chinese shares closed higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.9% to 3,870.02 and the Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 1.4% to 2,424.95.
Hong Kong shares ended higher. The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 0.7% to 25,894.55.
Japanese shares ended higher. The Nikkei Stock Average added 0.1% to 48,659.52.
India shares ended lower. The BSE SENSEX fell 0.4% to 84,587.01.
Europe
Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index rose 0.8% to 9,609.53. In Europe, shares closed higher. The Germany's DAX added 1% to 23,464.63, and the France's CAC 40 lifted 0.8% to 8,025.80
