NZ shares rise, led by Comvita, Tegel, Port of Tauranga

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New Zealand shares rose, with Comvita continuing its bounce from Monday's plunge and Tegel Group Holdings gaining.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index gained 26.76 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 7,090.92. Within the index, 30 stocks rose, 12 fell and eight were unchanged. Turnover was $145.2 million.

"Following on from offshore leads, it's a sea of green everywhere," said David Price, broker at Forsyth Barr. "It's picking up but it's still relatively quiet, this is kind of the first week back. The market has gone into cruise mode coming up to reporting season, it's kind of late to be getting any confessions now."

At 5:05pm New Zealand time, Australia's ASX 200 was up 0.4 per cent, Japan's Nikkei 400 rose 0.8 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.2 per cent.

Comvita led the index, rising 4.4 per cent to $7.30. The manuka honey products maker's shares dropped 17 per cent on Monday after it warned annual earnings will tumble by about two-thirds as the nation's unseasonably wet and windy weather saps the honey harvest and slow sales via China's informal trading channels, but bounced 7.5 per cent yesterday.

"I don't think the downgrade was a surprise, they had been talking that way - things had been a bit slow for them, and the result would probably be a little softer than they originally thought - they talked about that back in October," Price said. "The reaction was reasonably extreme, so it's just correcting a bit of that aggressive selling we saw on Monday."

Tegel Group Holdings, yesterday's worst performer, rose 3.1 per cent to $1.34. Price said he didn't read much into the rise, which is on low volumes.

Port of Tauranga gained 2.3 per cent to $4.09, New Zealand Refining Co advanced 2.2 per cent to $2.75 and Argosy Property rose 1.9 per cent to $1.05.

Air New Zealand advanced 0.5 per cent to $2.20. Passenger revenue in the first six months of the company's financial year has fallen sharply, even when the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations are eliminated. Short haul passenger revenue through its preferred metric fell 6.3 per cent in the six months to December, while long-haul passenger revenue slumped 14.3 per cent.

Genesis Energy gained 0.5 percent to $2.16. The country's largest energy company by customer numbers says electricity retail connections fell by 1.2 per cent to 514,155 between the end of September and the end of December 2016.

Units in the Fonterra Shareholders' Fund gained 0.2 per cent to $6.27. Fonterra Cooperative Group has sought to reassure shareholders after its Chinese partner Beingmate Baby and Child Food Co slashed its full-year guidance. Fonterra bought an 18.8 per cent stake in Beingmate in 2015 as it sought to ensure greater access to the Chinese market, and says the long-term outlook in China is still strong.

SkyCity Entertainment Group was the worst performer, down 0.8 per cent to $3.87, and Ebos Group declined 0.8 per cent to $16.80.

Outside the benchmark index, Turners was unchanged at $3.80. The country's largest seller of vehicles will sell stakes in its loan book in a deal worth an initial $150m. The securitisation programme is to start in February, with the first sales due to occur in March.