Market Announcements
Market Summary
How quickly President Donald Trump can change the tone of sharemarkets.
New Zealand shares followed global markets with a strong rebound after the president indicated he wouldn’t use force to acquire Greenland, nor would he introduce additional European tariffs.
After a strong rise on Wall Street, the S&P/NZX 50 Index climbed steadily and closed at 13,556.87, up 139.70 points or 1.04%, following the 1.15% fall the day before. A turnaround of nearly 2.2%.
There were 101 gainers and 40 decliners, with 35.7 million shares traded, worth $191.8m. Ebos Group, up 45c or 1.73% to $26.45, again dominated the trading with 2.9m shares worth $76.08m changing hands.
TACO
There have been a number of large lines crossed in Ebos in stronger-than-normal volumes. There has been some expectation that the seller, or sellers, may have cleared their orders.
Wall Street traded flat before finishing strongly after Trump’s latest statement, and the local market was primed for a reasonable bounce.
Trump said he had a very productive meeting with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte and laid the groundwork for a future deal over Greenland.
“Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the tariffs (on eight EU NATO countries) that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded 1.21% to 49,077.23 points; the S&P 500 was up 1.16% to 6,875.62; and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.18% to 23,224.82 – after the worst trading day on Monday for three months.
Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 index had gained 0.75% to 8,849.1 points at 6pm NZ time.
Australian employment data showed 65,200 jobs were added at the end of December, far above the forecast of 27,000, and the unemployment rate fell from 4.3% to 4.1%.
The market there has now increased its expectation of an interest rate rise when the Reserve Bank of Australia meets in two weeks.
Local stocks
At home, most of the blue-chip stocks that were hit on Monday recovered.
Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was up 33c to $38.73; Meridian Energy collected 14c or 2.52% to $5.69; Infratil gained 10c to $11.10; Fletcher Building increased 11c or 2.9% to $3.90; and a2 Milk rose 39c or 4.08% to $9.94 after reaching an intraday low of $9.42.
A2 Milk competitor Danone had recalled an infant formula product in Singapore.
Auckland International Airport gained 10c to $8.36 after reporting a 2% increase in the total of passengers to 1.81m in December compared with the same month in 2024.
International passengers, including transit, were up 4% to 1.06m and domestic was steady with 744,896 passengers.
Contact Energy was up 15c to $9.35 after reporting mass market electricity and gas sales of 340GWh in December, up from 274GWh for the same month in 2024. As at Jan 19, South Island controlled hydro storage was 129% of mean and North Island 145%.
Genesis Energy, gaining 4c to $2.45, said in its second quarter report that hydro generation increased 21GWh to 740GWh compared with the previous corresponding period because of favourable hydrological conditions and strong plant availability.
Thermal generation was a record low for the quarter at 85GWh and for the six months ending December at 869GWh, due to strong hydro conditions. Lake levels increased from 88% of average at the end of September to 122% at the end of December.
Genesis increased its full-year operating earnings (ebitdaf) guidance to $490m-$520m, from the previous $455m-$485m. The upgrade in guidance wasn’t a major surprise. The lakes are full, and they don’t have to run (more expensive) geothermal generation to fulfil their contracts. The energy companies appear to be well placed for winter generation and supply.
Other gainers were Vector, up 6c to $4.90; Sky TV, adding 5c to $3.43; and Manuka Resources, rising 2.2c or 11.4% to 21.5c.
Gentrack declined 22c or 2.68% to $8; Scales Corp decreased 11c or 1.91% to $5.65; and Green Cross Health was down 2.5c or 2.17% to $1.12.
Tower was down 1c to $1.89. Goodson said Tower had been happily trading around $2 ex dividend, but has drifted back on moderate volumes on nervousness about the impact of the floods relating to claims. But it doesn’t appear that urban centres have been hit hard.
Fresh produce exporter T&G Global was up 1c to $2.36 following a 5c rise the day before after upgrading its gross profit for the 2025 financial year to $16m-$20m
Source: BusinessDesk
Australian Market Report
Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 11 points lower at 8843.
- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market has snapped a three-session losing streak thanks to an uptick in global risk sentiment, but hotter-than-expected jobs figures have increased the likelihood of an interest rate hike.
The S&P/ASX200 rose 65.8 points on Thursday, up 0.75 per cent, to 8,848.7, as the broader All Ordinaries gained 63.9 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 9,172.5.
The top-200 initially surged as investors celebrated a cooling of US-Europe relations, before rolling over when surprise December employment jump narrowed odds the Reserve Bank will lift the cash rate in February.
"It was a funny day, because we saw real strength early on, and the market was up almost one per cent and then we saw the unemployment data come out," Moomoo market analyst Michael McCarthy told AAP.
The numbers to some degree had corrected from overly weak figures in November, he said.
"These monthly numbers do bounce around, so people aren't going to get too carried away, but the immediate interpretation was rate increases coming very soon," Mr McCarthy said.
Rates markets now imply a 60 per cent chance of a rate hike at the Reserve Bank's February meeting, with 25 basis-points of cuts priced-in by May.
Investors were largely unperturbed after three sessions of losses, unloading gold stocks as safe-haven buyers became profit takers, and the recently red-hot raw materials sector turned negative after supporting the broader bourse for most of the week.
Gold prices pulled back from Wednesday's $US4,888 ($A7,185) an ounce record, falling below $US4,800 and dragging the All Ordinaries gold sub-industry 5.6 per cent lower.
Segment giant Northern Star tanked more than eight per cent to $26.18 after slashing production guidance due to crusher outages, extended works and lower grades at its Pogo project.
Elsewhere in materials, Rio Tinto extended gains after a strong quarterly update on Wednesday, while Fortescue swung 5.1 per cent in the other direction after cost jumps overshadowed record iron ore production in the first half.
Mixed miner South32 sailed more than five per cent higher after maintaining production guidance across assets it operates, and remains on track with its capital management program.
Banks returned to form, helping boost the financial sector 1.9 per cent as NAB led its big four competitors higher.
The Commonwealth Bank snagged a handy 2.3 per cent boost to $150.61, reclaiming December lows after slipping to its lowest price since April 2025 earlier in the week.
Energy stocks traded almost three per cent higher as oil prices bounced on the back of easing tensions between the US and its European allies.
The utilities sector continued its run higher, up 5.5 per cent since Monday, with segment giant Origin extending its gains since announcing it would extend the life of Australia's largest coal-fired power station.
Woodside shares leapt 2.9 per cent to $24.20, while Santos surged 5.3 per cent to $6.38 as it improved output in the recent quarter and loaded its first cargo from it Barossa LNG project.
Consumer discretionary stocks rebounded strongly from three days of losses, up 2.4 per cent in a broad-based rally.
Droneshield was the top-200's best performer, trading 9.5 per cent higher after a price target upgrade from Bell Potter.
The Australian dollar spiked to 15-month highs on the back of the jobs report and is buying 68.05 US cents, up from 67.36 US cents on Wednesday at 5pm.
The Aussie was further supported by improving risk sentiment, soaring metals and commodity prices and reports Australia's second-largest superannuation fund, the Australian Retirement Trust, plans to increase its foreign exchange hedging ratios.
ON THE ASX:
The S&P/ASX200 rose 65.8 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 8,848.7
The broader All Ordinaries jumped by 63.9 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 9,172.5
The NZX 50 Lost -8.99 points (-0.07%) to 13547.88
Overseas Market Report
[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:
U.S. stocks ended higher. The DJIA gained 0.6% to 49,384.01, the S&P 500 climbed 0.5% to 6,913.35 and the Nasdaq lifted 0.9% to 23,436.02.
Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Arista Networks Inc ANET surging 8.74%, Datadog Inc DDOG jumped 6.28%, and Northern Trust Corp NTRS lifted 6.01%.
The biggest decliners were Abbott Laboratories ABT which dropped 10.06%, McCormick & Co Inc MKC fell 8.05%, and GE Aerospace GE lost 7.38%.
Asia
Chinese shares closed higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index added 0.1% to 4,122.58 and the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 0.7% to 2,713.51.
Hong Kong shares ended higher. The benchmark Hang Seng Index gained 0.2% to 26,629.96.
Japanese shares ended higher. The Nikkei Stock Average lifted 1.7% to 53,688.89.
India shares ended higher. The BSE SENSEX rose 0.5% to 82,307.37.
Europe
Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index added 0.1% to 10,150.05. In Europe, shares closed higher. The Germany's DAX lifted 1.2% to 24,856.47, and the France's CAC 40 added 1% to 8,148.89
