New Zealand’s market headed upwards today as investors wait impatiently for the US earnings season to get under way and see what’s inside company books.
Will companies come out the other side with a skip in their step or slightly bruised? We’ll get a better idea in the next few days.
The S&P/NZX 50 index rose 56.8 points, or 0.5%, to 11,811.24. Turnover was $77.4 million.
Peter McIntyre, an investment advisor at Craigs Investment Partners, said once earnings season kicks off in the US, NZ’s market would start shooting from more than one barrel.
‘It’s also what's happening with our interest rates – and our interest rates path – as well,” he told BusinessDesk.
In early February, the next US Federal Reserve meeting will take place where the Fed will consider its next interest rate decision, but McIntyre said many in the markets thought that the top of the rate hiking cycle might not be that far away. How long the cycle would continue, however, was a more uncertain question.
In the local share market, Auckland International Airport rose 2% to $8.31 and traded $15.9m in value over the course of the day.
Investment advisory firm Jarden downgraded its ‘neutral’ rating for The Warehouse Group to ‘underweight’ following the slump the retailer faced over the Christmas period.
Jarden analyst Guy Hooper said today that rising cost pressures and dampened consumer confidence meant Jarden was forecasting a 4.4% decline in year-on-year sales over the remainder of the 2023 financial year.
The Warehouse was down 1.1% to $2.61.
Briscoe Group was up 0.6% to $4.80, Hallenstein Glasson Holdings was down 0.2% to $5.34, KMD Brands was up 1% to $1.05 and Michael Hill rose 0.9% to $1.17.
In an operational update this morning, Meridian Energy reported sales increases across all market segments – except residential – and said customer numbers were 2.4% higher at the end of the second quarter compared to the same period a year earlier.
Retail sales volumes were 4.5% higher at a 13.3% higher average price, as were operating costs, which were 33.2% higher than in the second quarter of last year.
Manawa Energy shares were flat at $5.23 by the end of the day, alongside Mercury NZ flat at $5.74, Genesis Energy flat at $2.65 and Contact Energy up 1.5% to $7.90.
In a quarterly conversion project update from Channel Infrastructure today, the fuel infrastructure company said the importance of the firm’s infrastructure had “never been clearer” as aviation demand in NZ heated up.
“We have successfully completed tank conversions on almost half of the contracted private storage capacity, with the remainder due to come online in coming months,” chief executive Naomi James said.
Rob Buchanan, the general manager for growth and trading at Manawa Energy, is moving to Channel Infrastructure in early 2023.
Buchanan is taking over the role from James, who has been CEO since early 2020. James will finish in the role after delivering the company’s 2022 full-year financial results.
Channel Infrastructure ended up 0.7% to $1.44 by early evening.
Pacific Edge, which bounced up the index last week, was down 3.7% to 52 cents.
The NZ dollar was trading at 64.23 US cents at 5pm in Wellington, up from 63.77 US cents on Friday.
