Market close: Mainfreight stars as Wall Street rally flows downunder

Mainfreight trucks ay the distribution centre. Photo / File

Mainfreight, benefitting from a rebound in its sector overseas, had a strong gain of more than 5 per cent as the New Zealand sharemarket stretched its rally to a 10-month high.

After trading flat for most of the day, the S&P/NZX 50 Index had a sharp rise in the last half-hour matching session and closed at 12,197.15 – up 44.99 points or 0.37 per cent.

There were 77 gainers and 47 decliners over the whole market on volume of 25.53 million share transactions worth $112.5m.

The NZX index has now risen 6.3 per cent so far this year, erasing the decline in the December quarter and back to the level of late March last year.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said “we have certainly seen a healthy rally. The technology sector in the United States remains robust and this optimism has flowed through to the New Zealand market.

“But we still have plenty of economic data points to work through to see if inflation has really peaked and whether interest rates will start coming down. The next indicator is the US labour market data released overnight,” he said.

The technology-driven Nasdaq Composite, battered last year, has surged 16.57 per cent this year, and Facebook and Instagram owners Meta Platforms rose 23 per cent to US$188.77 (NZ$291.84) after beating earnings forecasts.

The Nasdaq was up 3.25 per cent to 12,200.82 points, and S&P 500 increased 1.47 per cent to 4179.76.

Bank of England and European Central Bank both raised their official cash rates by 50 basis points and like the US Federal Reserve the day before recognised that inflationary pressures were easing.

The Bank of England, which raised its rate to 4 per cent, forecast a shorter and shallower recession after officials had previously said the UK economy would enter its longest recession on record.

At home, the ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index in January bounced 9 points off its record low to 83.4, undoing the December fall.

Global transport and logistics company Mainfreight climbed $3.65 or 5.18 per cent to $74.10. It is providing a trading update on Thursday.

Solly said profits in the transport sector are holding up and some of Mainfreight’s peers overseas have been making better-than-expected earnings announcements.

There was continued buying in Ebos Group, up 64c to $43.39, on speculation that it is set to join the MSCI World Index. Fletcher Building also continued its run, gaining 16c or 3 per cent to $5.50.

Chorus was up 13c to $8.58; Restaurant Brands rose 10c to $6.40; Millennium & Copthorne Hotels NZ increased 5c or 2.33 per cent to $2.20; Seeka added 5c to $3.25; Synlait Milk collected 10c or 2.9 per cent to $3.55; and PGG Wrightson was up 15c or 3.42 per cent to $4.53.

In the rebounding property sector, Vital Healthcare Trust increased 7c or 2.89 per cent to $2.49; Goodman Trust gained 5.5c or 2.65 per cent to $2.13; and Property for Industry was up 4c or 1.75 per cent to $2.32.

In the energy sector, Mercury gained a further 7.5 to $6.37; Contact was down 6c to $7.74; and Meridian declined 5.5c to $5.375.

Retailer Briscoe Group gained 12c or 2.59 per cent to $4.75 after reporting a 5.56 per cent increase in total sales to a record $785.9m for the 12 months to January 29. Homeware sales were up 5.77 per cent and sporting goods 5.22 per cent. Online was now 18.;9 per cent of group sales.

In the second half, total sales increased 8.26 per cent to $417.9m, with homeware up 8.61 per cent and sporting goods 7.7 per cent. Briscoe told the market it is announcing its full result on March 15, and expects it to be ahead of the previous $87.9m net profit.

Other retailers Hallenstein Glasson was down 11c or 2 per cent to $5.49; and KMD Brands shed 2c or 1.85 per cent to $1.06.

Auckland International Airport declined 12c to $8.57; Ryman Healthcare was down 7c to $6.70; Summerset Group lost 17c to $9.73; Gentrack fell 16c or 5.61 per cent to $2.69; Scales Corp decreased 13c or 3.17 per cent to $3./97; and Tower dropped 1c to $65.5c.

TradeWindow was down 2c or 4.55 per cent to 42c, far away from its high of $2.38 in early February last year. The transport and logistics software firm is raising $20m through an offer at 45c a share and will be issuing 44.44m, new shares.