NZX Erases Morning Losses, Ends at Record High
2026-07-23 06:01
By
Chusnul Chotimah
1 min. read
New Zealand's stocks rose 32 points, or 0.2%, to close at 13,795 on Thursday, reversing morning weakness to post a second consecutive gain and hit a record high, buoyed by energy, materials, and consumer discretionary stocks.
The energy sector surged 4.6%, with Channel Infrastructure NZ, a world-class operator of energy infrastructure across New Zealand and Australia, jumping 4.6% on optimism over its fuel storage project.
However, a decline in US futures, following a downbeat session on Wall Street overnight, capped the gains ahead of the start of the earnings season for mega-cap tech companies.
Persistently high oil prices also pressured sentiment as inflation concerns fueled expectations of further interest rate hikes.
Tuesday's data showed that New Zealand's inflation rate accelerated to its highest level since Q4 2023 in Q2.
Other top performers were Freightways Group (3.2%), Hallenstein Glasson (2.8%), Westpac Banking Corp (2.0%), ANZ Group (1.9%), and Meridian Energy (1.8%).