MARKET WRAP: NZ shares rise as US holiday subdues trading

New Zealand shares rose but trading was light due to the July 4 holiday in the United States.

The NZX50 index climbed 37.21 points, or 0.41%, to 9,062.85, on turnover of $99 million.

“We’ve been a bit quiet, volumes around 75 million, and the New Zealand market has basically been almost flat for the day,” says Craigs Investment Partners senior investment adviser Nigel Scott.

Trade Me was the exception, jumping 8c to $4.70 on trading volumes of 3.3m.

“We’re wondering with Trade Me, given that the chief executive [Jon Macdonald] has announced he’s moving on after a long time, whether that might be making a bit of an impact on investors’ decisions.”

Mr Macdonald will step down in the next six months and a replacement has yet to be announced.

Ebos fell 10c to $20.70.

On Monday, the pharmacueticals wholesaler and distributor inked a $A1 billion five-year supply deal with Australia’s Chemist Warehouse Group, which will take its annual sales to more than $NZ8.5b from July 1 next year.

“[Ebos’] shares did rally 14% over this week, so they have had a very strong run and this might just be a bit of consolidation off the back of a few upgraded evaluations of the stock,” says Mr Scott. Ebos shares were trading at $17.95 ahead of the contract announcement.

Auckland International Airport rose 16c to $6.93 and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels climbed 10c to $3.30. 

Fletcher Building fell 15c to $6.85 and Heartland Bank was down 4c to $1.71.

Orion Health dropped 3c to $1.12. 

A2 Milk rose 15c to $11.55, while its supplier Synlait Milk edged up 6c to $11.50. 

US-China trade war
Trade tensions and interest rates in the US rising above New Zealand rates continue to weigh on the New Zealand dollar which was trading at US67.7c late in the day, That's down from US74c as recently as April.

US President Donald Trump’s plans to enact an extra $US34 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports are due to take effect on Friday.

But China has backtracked on initial plans to enact tit-for-tat tariffs, instead saying it "won't fire the first shot" and will assess the US tariffs on Friday.

“Basically, at the end of the day it looks like the trade tariffs on one side and the Republic of China on the other side, they won’t use the yuan as a weapon,” says Mr Scott.