Rest of the World
European markets followed trends set in Asia-Pacific the night before as cooling inflation data
in the US lifted investor sentiment across the board. The FTSE 100 lifted 0.2 per cent and the STOXX600 picked up a 0.5 per cent gain of its own.
A key event this week will be The World Economic Forum, hosted in Davos, Switzerland, with markets awaiting any material updates as world leaders discuss the war in Ukraine, inflation, and climate change, among other things.
Most Asian indices moved higher despite China recording a mammoth 60,000 Covid deaths since easing restrictions last month. The Nikkei225 was the only tracked index to record a loss overnight, down 1.1 per cent.
Commodities
Oil continues to be strong on the back of China’s re-opening, with Brent Crude now trading above US$84 per barrel. Alternatively, gold slipped back to US$1,913.7 per ounce.
Crypto currencies were timid over the last 24 hours with Bitcoin and Ethereum finding 0.9 and 0.5 per cent gains, respectively. This follows Bitcoin’s 11 per cent surge on Sunday, taking it beyond US$21,000.
New Zealand
New Zealand equities moved 0.4 per cent higher as the NZX50 finished at 11,802.7 points.
In what was a quiet day of stock specific news, Meridian Energy (-0.8 per cent) posted operating stats for the month of December, with ebitda (operating earnings) of NZ$62 million slightly lower than NZ$73 million for the same month last year as slightly higher electricity generation was not enough to offset a sharp fall in wholesale electricity prices.
Conversely, the December figure brought 1H23 ebitda to NZ$425 million, higher than 1H22′s figure of NZ$394 million despite national electricity demand being down 0.2 per cent in the period.
Australia
The ASX200 (+0.8 per cent) extended gains, reaching a 9-month high during the day’s trading to land at 7,388.2 points.
The mining and minerals-laiden ASX may have reacted to news out of China, with one of Beijing’s top economic planners suggesting potential tightening of iron ore pricing after the metal’s value surged over recent months.
Price stability measures included cracking down on the spreading of false information, hoarding, and price gouging.
To no surprise, large cap Aussie miners Core Lithium (-6.2 per cent) and Liontown Resources (-3.9 per cent) were the bottom two performers of the day.
Conversely, Aussie miner Ioneer Ltd (outside of the ASX200) jumped 20.9 per cent following news the company had confirmed US$700 million in debt funding from the US Department of Energy to continue its lithium-boron project in Nevada.
Other stocks on the move in the ASX included Super Retail Group (+7.7 per cent) and Polynovo (+2.0 per cent), both benefactors of strong first-half sales results, while Tyro Payments jumped 6.9 per cent in what was a favourable market reaction to an upgrade of its FY23 earnings guidance.
Kiwi-founded accounting software company Xero also made a positive start to the week, up 4.6 per cent.
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All market pricing and announcements are sourced from Refinitiv, NZX and ASX.
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