‘Impressively resilient’ NZX 50 up 0.3%

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 40 points, or 0.3%, to 11963.23. Turnover was higher than usual at $302 million as the MSCI Indices had their quarterly rebalance.

Trading was very light prior to the rebalance as investors were likely waiting to see how US markets opened tonight after European countries agreed to a harsher set of sanctions against Russia over the weekend.

“Over the weekend, sanctions were seriously escalated with Europe fully on board,” said Jeffrey Halley, an analyst at Oanda.

“Notably, the EU, Britain and the US are freezing the Russian central bank's assets, meaning they can’t be deployed to intervene in currency markets.”