Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said the local market belied the extreme volatility in the United States, Asia and Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt proves the low beta nature of the NZ market,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a little stronger under the hood as heavyweight Fisher & Paykel Healthcare weighed on the overall performance of the index.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 6pm NZ time, the S&P\/ASX 200 Index was up 1.92% to 8875.7 points after falling 2% on Friday, and the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index had gained 1.45% to 26,945.35 points.<\/p>\n
The Nikkei 225 had risen 4.15% to 56,507.08 points after Japan\u2019s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi won a landmark election victory, with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party gaining two-thirds of the 465-seat lower house.<\/p>\n
In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average burst through the 50,000 milestone for the first time after gaining 1206 points or 2.47% to 50,115.67. The S&P 500 was up 1.97% to 6932.3 points, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.18% to 23,031.21, led by Nvidia up 7.92% to US$185.41 ($308.30).<\/p>\n
Goodson said there have been differing views on the volatility of gold and bitcoin, and on the sudden emergence of the Anthropic Claude Legal AI tool and its impact on a range of software firms.<\/p>\n
Local stocks<\/p>\n
At home, Freightways hit the $15 mark for the first time with a gain of 36c or 2.46%. Goodson said Freightways was a strong cyclical stock exposed to the NZ economy, and it has reached a new benchmark.<\/p>\n
Skellerup Holdings rose 42c or 8.08% to $5.62, buoyed by a broker upgrade and the expectation it will produce another solid half-year financial result later this week. <\/p>\n
Skellerup\u2019s highest close was $6.49 in early February 2022.<\/p>\n
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 62c or 1.7% to $39.28 on trade worth $22.39m, and Chorus declined 35c or 3.66% to $9.20.<\/p>\n
Goodson said Chorus had been very strong of late, while other low-growth, high-yield stocks have been weak due to rising long-term interest rates. <\/p>\n
\u201cToday, for whatever reason, Chorus is down more than 3%.\u201d<\/p>\n
Infratil collected 21c or 1.94% to $11.04; Vista Group recovered 9c or 4.97% to $1.90; Gentrack was up 24c or 3.43% to $7.24; Heartland added 2.5c or 2.02% to $1.26; Scales Corp gained 12c or 2.04% to $6; and T&G Global rose 10c or 3.88% to $2.68.<\/p>\n
Pacific Edge increased 1.9c or 10.22% to 20.5c after telling the market that US Medicare contractor Novitas is meeting on February 20 (NZ time). <\/p>\n
Opinions expressed there will influence the language Novitas uses in any draft local coverage determination covering Medicare reimbursement of Cxbladder tests.<\/p>\n
Goodson said the expert panel hearing would be critical to Medicare coverage decisions. It\u2019s been a long and winding road for Pacific Edge, and all the signs going into the meeting have been positive.<\/p>\n
Manuka Resources fell 6.5c or 29.55% to 15c after a Fast-track Approvals expert panel declined<\/a> the consent application by subsidiary TransTasman Resources to harvest iron sands, for vanadium concentrate, off Taranaki.<\/p>\n Manuka and TransTasman have until February 19 to comment on the draft decision. TransTasman executive chairman Alan Eggers said; \u201cI find it difficult to accept that the expert panel intends to decline the project environmental approvals with concerns on almost every aspect\u201d.<\/p>\n Amongst other mining stocks, Santana Minerals was up 4.5c or 3.85% to $1.21, and Minerals Exploration was down 1.5c or 5.77% to 24.5c.<\/p>\n Sanford decreased 15c or 2.03% to $7.25; Serko shed 8c or 3.04% to $2.55; Sky TV was down 8c or 2.46% to $3.17; Napier Port eased 10c or 2.64% to $3.69; and Blackpearl Group declined 7.5c or 6.38% to $1.10.<\/p>\n Rakon was up 3.5c or 2.46% to $1.45 after receiving the formal takeover offer from US electronics company Bourns<\/a> at $1.55 a share. Rakon will issue an independent adviser\u2019s report on February 23.<\/p>\n Locate Technologies, down 0.001c or 73c, reported second-quarter revenue of $1.88m and a loss of $829,000 in operating earnings (ebitda). The loss included a one-off cost of $464,000 for the transition from the ASX to the NZX.<\/p>\n