On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered more than half of the previous day’s loss, gaining 1.19% to 52,208. The rally was mainly driven by Microsoft, rising 15.51% to US$451.10, and Goldman Sachs, up 4.5% to $$1024.86. Photo / Bloomberg

The New Zealand sharemarket ended a volatile week with a late fall – unable to maintain the momentum of a reassuring rebound in technology stocks on Wall Street.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index traded strongly in the morning, reaching a high of 13,943.33. But the sharp fall in thebrokers’ matching session saw the index close at 13,699.28, down 63.50 points or 0.46%.

The index finished the week down 0.45% after falling nearly 2% over the past two trading days.

Turnover increased to 38.3 million shares worth $165.5 million on end-of-month portfolio rebalancing, and there were 67 gainers and 66 decliners on the main board.

Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said the local market took its lead from the United States in the morning, but it was still a little fragile and drifted off later in the day.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered more than half of the previous day’s loss, gaining 1.19% to 52,208.

The rally was mainly driven by Microsoft, rising 15.51% to US$451.10 ($768.88), and Goldman Sachs, up 4.5% to US$1024.86.

The S&P 500 was up 1.66% to 7437.63 points, and the Nasdaq Composite increased 2.78% to 25,122.18, with Amazon gaining 3.9% to US$235.50 following its strong quarterly result.

Goodson said a US hedge fund, Situational Awareness, which had grown from US$200m to US$45 billion in assets, was being unwound after big losses “on its plays with AI and software stocks. This meant tech stocks moved in the opposite direction and made gains.”

Local stocks

At home, Chorus was down 19c, or 1.98%, to $9.43; a2 Milk declined 22c, or 2.6%, to $8.25; Fletcher Building decreased 10c, or 2.67%, to $3.65; and Ryman Healthcare shed 5c, or 2.28%, to $2.14.

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels NZ decreased 7c, or 2.23%, to $3.07; Metro Performance Glass fell 7c, or 7.07%, to 92c; and Livestock Improvement Corporation was down 8c, or 6.56%, to $1.14.

Gentrack rallied 9c, or 2.56%, to $3.61; Allied Farmers increased 2.5c, or 3.79%, to 68.5c; and Radius Residential Care was up 1.5c, or 3.75%, to 41.5c.

Mainfreight gained 20c to $69.20, and Infratil was up 3c to $14.78 after hitting intraday highs of $15.20 and $70.20, respectively.

Michael Hill gained 1.5c or 3.70% to 42c after reporting a 2% increase in group sales to A$654.7m ($783.96) for the year ending June 28. Operating earnings (ebit) are expected to be $22m-$24m, up 44-57%, compared with the previous year.

The jewellery retailer said sales in Australia, including Bevilles, were up 4.8%; Canada increased 7%; and NZ was up 3.6% after “a marked acceleration in the second half”.

T&G Global, established 129 years ago, was up 1c to $2.23 after selling its fresh produce division and retaining its premium apples and venture fruit operations.

Bidfood is buying T&G Fresh’s Fijian and Pacific Islands export business. Pukekawa Holdings and Ashsadeep Company are increasing their stake by purchasing T&G’s 51% shareholding in Unearthed Produce, and J&P Turner – from the original founding family – will buy the New Zealand fresh produce business.

T&G Global is retaining the Australian blueberry business and will be integrated into VentureFruit. T&G Global’s German parent company, BayWa AG, is going through a restructuring process after facing losses in renewable energy development.

Meridian Energy, unchanged at $5.70, has received the key remaining resource consent from the Palmerston North City Council to repower its Te Rere Hau Wind Farm in the Tararua Ranges.

The windfarm will increase generation to 172MW with 40 new turbines – seven times the annual energy production of the existing operation.

Oceania Healthcare, up 1c to 75c, is buying back up to 3.5 million shares on the market over the next 12 months. Shareholders, at the annual meeting the day before, voted against the board’s move to begin an independent review on ways to maximise shareholder value.

AFT Pharmaceuticals, unchanged at $4.81, announced its chairman, David Flacks, was retiring within the next 12 months. He has been in the role for 11 years and seen the company grow from revenue of $56.2m in 2015 to $254.7m.

AFT told shareholders at the annual meeting that it remained confident of reaching $300m revenue and $28m-$32m operating profit in the 2027 financial year.

Rua Gold was down 1c to $1.51 after telling the market that its Auld Creek project in the Reefton Goldfield has been accepted into the fast-track approvals process.

Rua said the project was expected to employ some 200 people and contribute an estimated $240m to the regional economy.

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