The Commerce Commission has approved Ampol's takeover of Z Energy. Photo / Warren Buckland
The Commerce Commission has approved Ampol's takeover of Z Energy. Photo / Warren Buckland
The New Zealand sharemarket, and others overseas, was in a cheery mood on the back of some reassuring economic news – and the travel and leisure stocks had an even stronger bounce.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose at the opening and didn't miss a beat, gaining 124.85 points or 1.05per cent to 11,998.96 after reaching an intraday high of 12,079.22. The index has risen nearly 1.5 per cent this week.
There were 98 gainers and 41 decliners across the whole market, on strong volume of 63.86 million share transactions worth $253.84m. Z Energy, under takeover by Ampol, dominated the individual trading with 13m shares worth $48.48m changing hands. The expected interest rate rise of 25 basis points by the United States Federal Reserve – the first since 2018 - and some comforting words from Chinese government officials gave the markets a boost.
Dan Stratful, investment adviser with Forsyth Barr, said Chinese officials reassured investors that the Government will support its economy and financial markets, which spurred the Asian markets.
"The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index had fallen steeply from 24,500 to 18,400 points, and it was up around 6 per cent. The US markets had a big bounce on the Fed Reserve announcement. It's been an incredible day, and the rally flowed onto the Australian and New Zealand markets.
"Markets at present are very headline news-driven and will react strongly either way," Stratful said.
Economic activity in New Zealand rebounded 3 per cent in the December quarter, just shy of the forecast 3.5 per cent and a turnaround from the 3.6 per cent fall in gross domestic product for the September quarter last year.
On Wall Street overnight, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 3.77 per cent to 13,436.55 points; S&P 500 rose 2.24 per cent to 4357.86; and the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 1.55 per cent to 34,063.1.
The Australian S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 1.14 per cent to 7257.3 points at 6pm NZ time.
Auckland Airport stocks rose after the New Zealand Government moved to reopen the border to tourists earlier than expected.
After the New Zealand government move to reopen the border to tourists earlier than expected, the travel and leisure stocks rose for the second day.
Auckland International Airport climbed 28.5c or 3.96 per cent to $7.485; Air New Zealand was up 2c to $1.43; and Serko gained 9c or 1.98 per cent to $4.63. Tourism Holdings increased 6c or 2.15 per cent to $2.85; SkyCity Entertainment gained 3c to $2.94; and Vista Group rose 14c or 8.19 per cent to $1.85. Tourism Holdings has sold its minority shareholding in Roadpass Digital to its joint venture partner THOR Industries for $23.9m, representing a $1.6m gain. Tourism Holdings also received $823,000 of the final dividend due to be paid by Roadpass, which provides apps for the camper van sector. Skellerup Holdings bounced back, rising 30c or 5.45 per cent to $5.78; Mainfreight was up $2.18 or 2.85 per cent to $78.58; Freightways gained 47c or 4.07 per cent to $12.03; and EBOS Group collected 71c or 1.91 per cent to $37.85. Fisher and Paykel Healthcare increased 32c to $27.52; Fletcher Building rose 14c or 2.21 per cent to $6.47; a2 Milk was up 17c or 3.08 per cent to $5.69; Synlait collected 7c or 2.22 per cent to $3.22; and DGL Group gained 17c or 5.61 per cent to $3.20.
Among the energy stocks, Contact was down 13c to $7.84; Trustpower fell 15c or 2.21 per cent to $6.65; Meridian declined 7.7c to $5.05; Mercury was up 11c or 1.91 per cent to $5.86; and Genesis increased 3.7c to $2.755. The banks were strong. ANZ Banking Group increased 49c to $29.43; Westpac Banking Corporation was up 15c to $25.32; and Heartland Group Holdings gained 8c or 3.72 per cent to $2.23.
Among the retailers, Michael Hill International gained 6c or 5 per cent to $1.26, and The Warehouse Group increased 9c or 3.11 per cent to $2.98.
Precinct Properties picked up 4.5c or 3.01 per cent to $1.54; and Livestock Improvement Corporation rose 11c or 7.33 per cent to $1.61. "There's been a general bounce all around," said Stratful. "A lot of the shares are rebounding after going ex-dividend following the reporting season."
Z Energy was up 4c to $3.73 after the Commerce Commission approved the takeover by Ampol subject to the divestment of Gull. Ampol is selling the Gull New Zealand business to Australian investment manager Allegro Funds. Amongst the decliners, PGG Wrightson was down 15c or 3.09 per cent to $4.70; Scott Technology declined 6c or 1.95 per cent to $3.02; and Fonterra Shareholders' Fund decreased 7c or 2.02 per cent to $3.40.
