Jarden Brief: Australian deluge leads to 5000 insurance claims

Wild weather in Sydney has hit the insurance industry. Photo / File

Keeping you up to date with the latest market moves, in association with Investment firm Jarden

New Zealand

The NZX 50 decreased by 1.5 per cent in Monday's session.

Headlines were dominated by government announcements that it would give guidance on a transtasman travel bubble on 6 April. National and businesses across New Zealand increasingly pressured the government to provide more concrete information about when the borders would open. However, the Prime Minister emphasised that it is a complex undertaking, especially regarding border closures if new community cases emerge on either side of the Tasman sea.

The day's top performer was the online travel booking and expense management platform Serko, increasing 4.8 per cent to $6.37, after it published a positive trading conditions update yesterday, indicating that transaction volumes are increasing again.

The company used March 2019 numbers as benchmarks, to provide less skewed information about its development. The forecasted range of travel volumes for this month was 40-70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, and it is currently averaging 68 per cent compared to the same period in March 2019. Serko is continuously onboarding new clients within the Australasia region, supporting the uptake in travel volumes.

SkyCity shares increased by 2.1 per cent to $3.46, with investors sentiment on the sector improved following Blackstone's takeover offer for Crown Resorts.

Also leading the market up was agribusiness group Scales Corporation, up 4.6 per cent to $4.55, and film technology provider Vista Group, up 3.7 per cent to $2.22. Some media outlets have also reported rumours that Scales is leading the pack of potential suitors to acquire wine producer Villa Maria Estates.

The worst performer of yesterday's session was Synlait Milk (-7.4 per cent to $3.73), following news about a director's resignation. Gentailers also had a rough session - with Meridian Energy (-6.3 per cent to $5.25) and Mercury NZ (-5.3 per cent to $6.20) rounding out underperformers.

The government will today publish the first bid about its new housing policy, aiming to better the situation for first home buyers on the supply and the demand side.

Kathmandu will be releasing its Half Year results today, and The Warehouse and Hallenstein Glasson Holdings will follow suit later this week.

INTERNATIONAL
US Markets:

At time of writing, the S&P 500 was up 0.8 per cent, the DJIA was up 0.2 per cent and the NASDAQ has recovered from Friday's losses, up 1.6 per cent.

Tech stocks led the rise, up 2.3 per cent, while Financials fell 1.2 per cent.

Today's top performing stocks are Kansas City Southern, a railway network, jumping up 12.3 per cent, and Tesla, up 5.7 per cent.

Kansas City Southern rose today after news announcing that it was being purchased by Canadian Pacific Railway for US$25 billion. This is part of a plan by to create the first rail network that connects Canada, Mexico and the US.

The stocks performing the worst overnight were SVB Financial Group, down 5.5 per cent, and American Airlines, which had fallen 4.4 per cent at the time of writing.

Asia:

Asian markets were a mixed bag yesterday with the Shanghai index up 1.1 per cent, the Nikkei down by 2.1 per cent, and the Hangseng down 0.4 per cent.

The Bank of Japan's Monetary Policy Meeting result was announced recently which outlined their plan to continue the use of stimulatory monetary policy. Short-term interest rates will be kept low at -0.1 per cent, and long-term interest rates will have a slightly larger range, with the 10-year government bond range set at -0.25 to 0.25 per cent; up from -0.2 to 0.2 per cent. Maintaining low interest rates will continue to provide stimulus while widening the range allows for greater normalisation of economic activity.

Commodities:

Gold fell 0.1 percent today to trade at US$1739.30 per ounce. Oil prices were in the red again today, falling 0.4 per cent to US$61.20 a barrel. Of the crypto currencies, Bitcoin fell 1.6 per cent today and Ethereum fell 1.5 per cent.

Lastly, US 10-year Treasury yields came down 0.1, from recent highs, to 1.682 per cent.

Australia

The ASX closed yesterday's trading increasing 0.7 per cent - led by strong sector performances in Academic and Education Services alongside Energy which advanced 3.7 and 2.5 per cent respectively.

Entertainment and Resort company Crown Resorts was in the news yesterday with their share price jumping 21.4 per cent after a takeover offer from American private equity group Blackstone. The offer itself was for AUD$11.85 per share, valuing the company at A$8 billion. The casino operator emerged as a potential takeover target following a supreme court ruling earlier this year, labelling Crown as unfit to hold the licence for its A$2.2 billion Sydney casino.

Prior to news of the offer Crown was trading at A$9.86, and surged to A$11.75 on open after the news broke. Crown finished the day at A$11.97, above even Blackstones' offer.
Meanwhile, fuel retailer Ampol Ltd (formerly Caltex) increased 5.7 per cent following a large share purchase from one of the company's directors at close of trading on Friday.
In contrast, Basic Materials underperformed to be the only sector down yesterday - dropping 0.7 per cent. Contributing to this were losers on the day Champion Iron Ltd and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd, down 10.1 and 4.3 per cent respectively. Stocks with links to iron ore stumbled after China vowed to reduce its crude steel production to meet emissions targets. Iron ore is used to make machinery that produces steel.

In other news, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) recently declared an insurance catastrophe following severe rain for most of the weekend causing more than 5000 insurance claims for damaged property. An event like this is likely to push up insurance premiums as insurance companies across Australia will have to fork out the cost of paying out largely unexpected flood insurance claims in the middle of March.

• For more information on the latest market moves, get in touch with Jarden.

Disclaimer: This Morning Brief has been prepared in good faith and reflects opinions and views at the time of publication, using external sources, systems and other data and information we believe to be accurate, complete and reliable at the time of preparation. We make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, correctness and completeness of that information, and will not be liable or responsible for any error or omission. This Morning Brief is not to be relied upon as a basis for making any investment decision. Please seek specific investment advice before making any investment decision. Jarden Securities Limited is an NZX Firm, a broker disclosure statement is available free of charge at www.jarden.co.nz. Jarden is not a registered bank in New Zealand. Full disclaimer available at: https://www.jarden.co.nz/limitations-and-disclaimer