“There’s been some positive releases today in New Zealand and the general flavour is glimpses or even maybe shoots of positivity,” Smith said.
KMD Brands released a first-quarter update for the 2026 financial year at its annual general meeting, with total group sales lifting by 7.9% compared with the prior corresponding period, driven by a 13.9% rise in sales for Kathmandu.
“Obviously the acid test, as for most retailers, will be around Christmas trading and to a certain extent Black Friday, but it’s encouraging.”
KMD Brands’ share price lifted 5.45% or 1.5c to 29c after 480,525 shares changed hands on turnover worth $138,461.02.
Elsewhere, Napier Port reported a 24.4% increase in its net profit for the September year, while lifting its dividend and painting a favourable earnings outlook for 2026.
“The result was above previous guidance, although they had flagged that they thought that might occur. I think again it’s symptomatic of an economy that’s getting a bit better.
“I think the tourism vessel figures were interesting, a little bit less than expected but that was outweighed by the positive forecast comments elsewhere.”
The port’s share price lifted 2.63% or 9c to $3.51 on turnover worth $609,595.95.
Radius Healthcare, meanwhile, rallied 6.67% to $0.40 after its half-year result, with its net profit increasing by 221% to $6.3m compared with the prior corresponding period.
Contact Energy fell 1.80% or 17c to $9.30 on turnover worth $12m, while Infratil fell 0.43% or 5c to $11.55 on turnover worth $6.7m.
Summerset Group fell 0.71% or 9c to $12.51 and Fletcher Building was down 0.30% or 1c to $3.37.
Stock markets slid across the board on Tuesday in the US as investors worried about lofty tech valuations on the eve of earnings from AI chip titan Nvidia.
Bitcoin also briefly fell below the key US$90,000 ($159,800) level for the first time in seven months, before rising to around US$93,000.
Major Wall Street indexes closed lower after a rough day of trading in Europe and a sharp sell-off in Asia, while Nvidia itself gave up 2.8%.
There was no cheer at the European close either as London, Paris and Frankfurt all shed more than 1%.
After stocks’ record rally this year, traders have begun to question whether the billions poured into artificial intelligence will ever lead to big returns.
Investors will be looking for clues on the health of the industry when Nvidia releases its quarterly earnings later on Wednesday (Thursday morning NZT).
– Additional reporting AFP
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
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