Market Announcements
Market Summary
The New Zealand sharemarket opened the new month on a quiet note, but investor sentiment is building for a solid finish to the year as the economic recovery takes hold. Following the post-Thanksgiving Wall Street rebound, the S&P/NZX 50 Index traded strongly in the morning but then eased off to close at 13,448.49, down 40.66 points, or 0.3%. There were 63 gainers and 81 decliners on the main board, with 30.9 million shares worth $118.8m changing hands. The index traded between an intraday high of 13,528.42 points and a low of 13,416.82.
ASB Bank said more green shoots were sprouting, reinforcing the view that the economic recovery should look more assured by February, when the following OCR directions are announced. ASB believes any further cuts are only likely if the economy is set to underperform expectations to the point that inflation will sit in the bottom half of the inflation target, without a further push from lower interest rates. ASB said following the 25-basis points reduction in the OCR last week, term wholesale interest rates jumped, which “we don’t see as being particularly helpful for the Reserve Bank given the large number of borrowers who will be refixing their interest rates in the coming months”.
The markets have gone through an edgy November. The NZX 50 eased 0.4% after six months of gains, and the S&P/ASX 200 Index declined 3%. The Nasdaq Composite, down 1.5%, had its first monthly decline since March amid profit-taking in big AI technology stocks. Across the Tasman, the ASX 200 was down 0.59% to 8,563.20 points at 5.45pm NZ time Monday.
Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was up 13c to $37.43 following its strong half-year result last week. Fletcher Building gained 8c or 2.39% to $3.43; Freightways collected 23c to $14.18; and Port of Tauranga added 12c to $7.70. Summerset gained 17c to $12.72; Scott Technology increased 14c or 4.9% to $3; Ventia Services gained 15c or 2.29% to $6.90; and Vista Group rebounded 10c or 3.85% to $2.70.
One of the quiet performers on the market, primary care provider Third Age Health, gained another 20c or 3.15% to $6.55, having risen nearly 190% over the past 12 months. The stock began its climb in early May from $2.76. Sanford’s run stalled after falling 32c or 4.27% to $7.17; a2 Milk fell 34c or 3.09% to $10.65; Eroad declined 8c or 5.23% to $1.45; and Turners Automotive was down 19c or 2.35% to $7.88. Gentrack declined 20c or 1.86% to $10.55; Hallenstein Glasson was down 16c to $9.67; Heartland Group decreased 2.5c or 2.25% to $1.08; and ikeGPS fell 4.5c or 3.86% to $1.12.
Cooks Coffee increased 1.5c or 6.67% to 24c after reporting a 111% rise in revenue to $5.76m for the six months ending September, with operating profit at $68,000. SkyCity was down 1.5c or 1.79% to 82.5c after announcing the NZ International Convention Centre will open on Feb 11 with a dawn blessing, public day and live concert during the first few weeks.
Global trade software company TradeWindow was up 0.010c to 33c after telling the market it has had confirmation to list on the Australian ASX, subject to the settlement of the recent $5.8m capital raise. On the other hand, another software firm, Locate Technologies, specialising in last-mile delivery and logistics, is transferring from the ASX and listing on the NZX on Wednesday. Locate listed on the ASX in September 2021 and has been trading at A5.8c (NZ6.62c). The company raised $1m at NZ7.5c a share in preparation for the NZ listing.
Source: Business Desk
Australian Market Report
Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 6 points higher at 8589.
- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market has started the month on the back foot, tracking a turnaround in global risk appetite after a hawkish speech from the Bank of Japan's governor.
The S&P/ASX200 fell 48.9 points on Monday, down 0.57 per cent, to 8,565.2, as the broader All Ordinaries lost 52.2 points, or 0.59 per cent, to 8,866.5.
A modest morning gain quickly swung into the red after signs of further interest rate hikes in Japan dragged on the Nikkei, causing a domino effect which weighed on US futures and the local bourse, IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said.
"We have support coming in for the Japanese yen, and the Nikkei doesn't like it so, and that sort of flowed through to US equity futures, it has flowed through to Bitcoin and cascaded a little bit through into the ASX 200 today," he told AAP.
"We were looking for a slightly firmer open but here we are, back below 8600 today."
The slump also came as bourse operator ASX scrambled to fix an outage impacting the publication of market sensitive announcements, locking scores of companies in trading halts for most of the day, and wiping 2.8 per cent from ASX Ltd's share price.
Eight of 11 local sectors traded lower as health care, consumer staples and IT stocks tumbled, while the energy sector surged 0.5 per cent on the back of a rising oil price, as Ukrainian drones hit two Russian 'shadow fleet' crude tankers.
The heavyweight financials sector gave up 0.9 per cent as all big four banks traded lower, with ANZ copping the brunt of the move, down 1.3 per cent to $34.20, while CBA's 0.6 per cent slump to $151.64 was the best of the bunch.
Insurance broker AUB was the top-200's worst performer, down 17.8 per cent after its two private equity suitors walked away from a more than $5 billion takeover bid.
Raw materials stocks gained 0.3 per cent, helped by large cap miners BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue as iron ore futures spiked to equal four-week highs during the session, with tight steelmaking inventories outweighing yet another month of contracting factory activity in China.
Gold stocks were broadly lower, despite the spot price rising to $US4,226 ($A6,461) an ounce, as investors took profit on the previous week's run-up.
Evolution Mining fell almost two per cent, while Northern Star and Newmont edged 0.2 per cent either side of break-even.
Consumer staples stocks fell 0.9 per cent, as Coles and Woolworths edged lower and a handful of company-specific drops weighed.
Shares in wholesale giant Metcash sunk 9.2 per cent to $3.36 when it came out of the outage-impacted trading halt, after the IGA supplier noted tobacco sales had plunged by more than a third in the six months to October due to black market trade.
Penfolds owner Treasury Wine Estates slipped 0.7 per cent per cent after flagging $687 million in goodwill writedowns in its US business.
Health care stocks trailed the broader market, down 1.7 per cent in a nearly sector-wide sell-off, excepting Ramsay Health Care (+1.2 per cent) which provided a small island of green in the segment's sea of red.
Imaging IT provider Pro Medicus slumped 1.6 per cent to $262.18 despite announcing a seven-year, $25 million deal with a US health network, wiping a significant chunk of the previous week's nearly eight per cent gain.
The Australian dollar is buying 65.41 US cents, up from 65.29 US cents on Friday.
Looking ahead, investors will be watching Wednesday's quarterly GDP data release, along with a speech by Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock a few hours before.
ON THE ASX:
The S&P/ASX200 fell 48.9 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 8,565.2
The broader All Ordinaries gained 52.2 points, or 0.59 per cent, to 8,866.5
The NZX 50 Lost -10.21 points (-0.08%) to 13438.28
Companies Holding Annual General Meeting (ASX 300):
Bank of Queensland Limited
Overseas Market Report
[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:
U.S. stocks ended lower. The DJIA slipped 0.9% to 47,289.33, the S&P 500 declined 0.5% to 6,812.63 and the Nasdaq slipped 0.4% to 23,275.92.
Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were NVIDIA Corp NVDA surging 1.65%, Apple Inc AAPL jumped 1.52%, and Amazon.com Inc AMZN lifted 0.34%.
The biggest decliners were NVIDIA Corp NVDA which dropped 1.65%, Apple Inc AAPL fell 1.52%, and Amazon.com Inc AMZN lost 0.34%.
Asia
Chinese shares closed higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7% to 3,914.01 and the Shenzhen Composite Index gained 1% to 2,478.93.
Hong Kong shares ended higher. The benchmark Hang Seng Index climbed 0.7% to 26,033.26.
Japanese shares ended lower. The Nikkei Stock Average dropped 1.9% to 49,303.28.
India shares ended lower. The BSE SENSEX slipped 0.1% to 85,641.90.
Europe
Stocks in the U.K. finished lower. The FTSE 100 Index declined 0.2% to 9,702.53. In Europe, shares closed lower. The Germany's DAX fell 1% to 23,589.44, and the France's CAC 40 dropped 0.3% to 8,097.00
