NZ Stocks Flat as Oil Prices Near $100 Amid Global Tensions
New Zealand's stock market ended almost flat on Friday as investors weighed the impact of rising oil prices against local company updates. The S&P/NZX 50 index closed at 13,772.29, barely moving despite Brent crude jumping 7% overnight to around $100 a barrel.
The surge in energy prices has revived inflation worries tied to the Middle East, with attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and tight passage through the Straits of Hormuz keeping supply risk in focus. Higher oil prices can make inflation stickier and keep central banks cautious about cutting interest rates.
Locally, job platform Seek reported a 0.2% increase in job ads in June, while Chorus, a major telecom infrastructure company, saw slower fiber growth and an overall decline in fixed-line connections. The company's fiber connections grew by 5,000 in its fiscal fourth quarter, but total fixed-line connections fell by 4,000 to 1.2 million.
Chorus' slowdown in fiber growth could weaken the benefit of scale for the network business, reducing near-term revenue growth and making profits more sensitive to small shifts in subscriber mix.