Market close: NZ shares rally in welcome relief for investors

The New Zealand sharemarket posted a welcomed gain of more than one per cent. Photo / NZME

The New Zealand sharemarket, posting a welcomed gain of more than 1 per cent, joined the relief rally as hope surfaced for a resolution to the war in Ukraine. Some of the battered stocks made strong recoveries.

After a big day on Wall Street, the S&P/NZX 50 Index rose strongly at the opening and stayed that way until a late dip in the matching session, closing at 11,926.26 – up 141.12 points or 1.2 per cent.

There were 98 gainers and 48 decliners across the whole market on volume of 50.3 million share transactions worth $187.95 million.

The Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers are meeting in Turkey on Thursday and reports indicated Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was no longer pressing for Nato membership, one of Russia's stated reasons for its invasion.

The pressure soon came off commodity prices. Crude oil fell more than 10 per cent from US$124 a barrel to US$108 and wheat was down 6 per cent. Gold fell under the $2000 mark to US$1978 an ounce.

Jeremy Sullivan, investment advisor with Hamilton Hindin Greene, said any potential for a de-escalation of the war is being rewarded on the markets. "We have seen that Zelensky might be prepared to neutralise – by not having an army and not joining Nato."

A month ago the markets were rattled by the prospect of rising interest rates, though that hasn't happened yet. The United States Federal Reserve meets next week and is expected to begin a series of rate hikes.

"Then the interest rates voice was taken over by the war in Ukraine, and it's a very volatile time," said Sullivan.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 650 points or 2 per cent to 33,286.25; S&P 500 rose 2.57 per cent to 4277.88; and Nasdaq Composite climbed 460 points or 3.59 per cent to 13,255.55.

The Euro STOXX 50 Index rose 7.44 per cent, the biggest one-day gain since the Covid pandemic fall in March 2020. The Australian S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 1.09 per cent to 7129.8 points at 6pm NZ time.

At home, there were big rebounds. Fletcher Building rose 29c or 4.63 per cent to $6.55, back to where it was a week ago; Auckland International Airport increased 24c or 3.47 per cent to $7.15; and Air New Zealand climbed 6c or 4.38 per cent to $1.43.

Pacific Edge recovered 6c or 6.9 per cent to 93c after falling from $1.32 at the start of the year; EROAD was up 38c or 10.89 per cent to $3.87; and Serko increased 21c or 4.67 per cent to $4.71.

Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare gained 62c or 2.33 per cent to $27.27; Mainfreight increased $1.30 to $78.30; Mercury Energy climbed 12c or 2.16 per cent to $5.68; and Restaurant Brands was up 18c to $14.60.

Summerset Group Holdings gained 13c to $11.55; a2 Milk was up 6c to $5.77; Synlait increased 10c or 3.13 per cent to $3.30; SkyCity Entertainment collected 5c to $2.87; Vulcan Steel rose 23.4c or 2.2 per cent to $24.17; and Napier Port rebounded 9c or 3.09 per cent to $3.

The banks were strong. ANZ Banking Group increased 83c or 3.08 per cent to $27.78; Westpac Banking Corporation gained 77c or 3.26per cent to $24.42; and Heartland Group Holdings was up 7c or 3.37 per cent to $2.15.

Michael Hill International picked up 3.7c or 2.91 per cent to $1.31; Refining NZ gained 5c or 5.15 per cent to $1.02; Oceania Healthcare increased 3c or 2.91 per cent to $1.06; Gentrack collected 6c or 3.97 per cent to $1.57; and Carbon Fund added 8c or 3.98 per cent to $2.09.

Chemicals company DGL Group increased 11c or 3.86 per cent to $2.96 after making a further purchase – this time RLA Polymers NZ for $4.6m made up of $3.45m cash and shares. DGL now has 54 facilities in New Zealand and Australia.

Amongst the decliners, Freightways decreased 7c to $11.80; Meridian Energy declined 5c to $5.08; Genesis shed 7c or 2.44 per cent to $4.80; and Comvita was down 5c to $3.50.

Chatham Rock Phosphate declined 2c or 8 per cent to 23c after telling the market it was proceeding with a private placement for up to $1.9m, made up of 10m units at 19.5c a unit.

The money will be used for permitting the Avenir Makatea phosphate project in French Polynesia and establishing a dicalcic phosphate manufacturing plant at Korella South in Queensland.