Market close: Property stocks lead NZX higher amid light trading

The MZ sharemarket found support to claw back into positive territory for the year to date. Photo / Greg Bowker

Property stocks, largely ignored for a lot of the year, led a late spurt by the New Zealand sharemarket that turned on another significant gain.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index climbed all day, increasing 100.52 points or 0.78 per cent to 13,040.94. The index is now back in positive territory for the year at plus 0.39 per cent, having started the day at minus 0.39 per cent.

There was the usual light holiday trade, with 34.28 million shares worth $83.9m changing hands, and 89 gainers and 46 decliners across the whole market.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said the market, with one more half trading day to come, is ending the year with a positive tone, after a rollercoaster 12 months.

"You do tend to see a stronger performance in January when people come back and re-invest their profits. There will also be an inflow of cash from the KiwiSaver Schemes which aggregate the contributions."

Solly said the property sector has had a monthly return of nearly 6 per cent. The sector had been left behind by the market but it was underpinned by better profit results and strong revaluation gains, and people were hunting for dividend yields.

All the property companies increased. Precinct Properties was up 3.5c or 2.16 per cent to $1.655; Goodman Property Trust rose 5c or 1.95 per cent to $2.61; Stride collected 3c to $2.14; and Investore gained 3c to $1.93.

Property for Industry and Kiwi Property were both up 2c to $2.955 and $1.17 respectively, while Vital Healthcare Property Trust and Argosy both gained 1c to $3.15 and $1.60 respectively.

Mainfreight increased $2.58 or 2.88 per cent to $92.30; Fletcher Building was up 12c to $7.41; Ryman Healthcare gained 13c to $12.34; and Summerset Group Holdings rose 35c or 2.67 per cent to $13.47.

Port of Tauranga picked up 7c to $6.62; Freightways was up 18c to $12.99; Skellerup Holdings rose 20c or 3.22 per cent to $6.41'and PGG Wrightson gained 10c or 2 per cent to $5.10.

"People are putting some life into the (solid and established) domestic stocks – that's all about the New Zealand economy doing better than expected," said Solly.

Among the energy companies, Mercury was up 13c or 2.18 per cent to $6.10; Contact gained 7c to $7.99; and Trustpower increased 5c to $7.30.

Transtasman distributor and processor Vulcan Steel is continuing to be one of the market stars after listing in early November at $7.50. Vulcan climbed 54c or 5.54 per cent to $10.29. Another recent listing, Trade Window, rose a further 25c or 12.2 per cent to $2.30.

Scales Corporation was up 15c or 2.71 per cent to $5.68; Rakon increased 4c or 2 per cent to $2.04; Fonterra Shareholders' Fund gained 8c or 2.19 per cent to $3.73; Harmoney collected 4c or 2.11 per cent to $1.94; and Bremworth was up 3c or 4.29 per cent to 73c.

Hot stock pick Heartland Group Holdings gained another 7c or 2.86 per cent to $2.54, having increased more than 7.5 per cent in two days. Reopening stock Vista Group recovered 10c or 4.37 per cent to $2.39 as blockbuster movies attract people back to the cinema.

In the United States overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 blue-chip stocks and the S&P 500 indices both reached new all-time highs, with commentators saying Wall Street is having a Santa Claus rally – just like New Zealand.

The Dow Jones had its 70th record close of the year – but the first since early November – when it gained 0.25 per cent to 36,488.63 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.14 per cent to 4793.06, but the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite was down 0.098 per cent to 15,766.22.