Mark Lister, investment director with Craigs Investment Partners, said the first trading day of 2026 was off to a good start, and hopefully this year will be better.
“On day one, so far so good and there has been some strength in offshore markets. All eyes will be on the United States this week with the release of the important manufacturing and jobs reports, and any fallout from the Venezuela development,” Lister said.
“The oil price has slipped a little (to US$60.72/NZ$105.60 a barrel), but there has so far been minimal reaction in the markets. Like many geopolitical events nowadays, they blow over very quickly from a financial market perspective.“
Gold is having a good day (up 2% to US$4,408.8 an ounce) and so is cryptocurrency (bitcoin up 1.5% to US$92,906).
Investors seem to be pretty upbeat out there.
“I’m sure there will be twists and turns along the way, but investors are looking forward to a better year from an economic perspective.”
Offshore, the Japanese Nikkei 225 Index had risen 2.96% to 51,829.1 points at 6pm NZ time, Shanghai Composite had gained 1.07% to 4,011.45, and the Australian S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.14% to 8,739.7.
In the previous trading day on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.66% to 48,382.39 points; the S&P 500 was ahead 0.19% to 6,858.47; and the Nasdaq Composite was flat at 23,235.63.
NZ-born space company Rocket Lab hit a new high, gaining 8.93% to US$75.99.
Local stocks
Back home, Infratil – the fourth biggest local stock on market capitalisation – rose 35c or 3.16% to $11.43.
Lister said Infratil has broad exposure to artificial intelligence and data centres and is catching the optimism in that sector.
“When the big stocks like Infratil do the heavy lifting, then the local market generally has a good day.”
Two recent strong performers, Freightways and Scales Corp, had falls due to profit-taking. Freightways declined 40c or 2.77% to $14.05, and Scales was down 11c or 1.85% to $5.85.
Third Age Health, the biggest gainer on the market last year, fell 37c or 6.75% to $5.11. Another well-performed healthcare stock, Radius Residential Care, shed 1.5c or 3.85% to 37.5c after rising more than 90% last year. Cancer diagnostic company Pacific Edge declined 0.006c or 3.24% to 17.9c.
Fletcher Building was up 7c or 1.9% to $3.75; Michael Hill rebounded 1.5c or 3.7% to 42; Tower increased 6c or 2.97% to $2.08; and Winton Land added 3.5c or 3.03% to $1.19.
In the retirement village sector, Ryman Healthcare gained 5c or 1.72% to $2.96; Summerset was up 9c to $12.38; and Oceania Healthcare was down 1.5c to 90.5c.
Other gainers were Rakon rising 5.5c or 6.67% to 88c; Serko adding 5c to $3.08; Marlin Global fund up 2.4c or 2.56% to 96c; TradeWindow improving 2c or 6.78% to 31.5c; and Move Logistics collecting 2c or 7.69% to 28c.
Vulcan Steel was down 19c or 2.29% to $8.11 after announcing a reshuffle in leadership. Gavin Street replaces long-serving Rhys Jones as chief executive and has also been appointed to the board as managing director.
Jones, elected a board member at October’s annual meeting, becomes the chairman in place of Russell Chenu, who remains on the board as the lead independent director.
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