Email of the day (3)
Comment of the Day

November 12 2013

Commentary by Eoin Treacy

Email of the day (3)

on New Zealand
“You may have noticed the relative performance of the NZ market. The article at the link may explain”

Eoin Treacy's view Thank you for this informative article which is sure to be of interest to subscribers not least because of New Zealand’s notable outperformance. Here is a section:

That hope has made Xero's shares a hot ticket among investors, including Mr. Thiel's Valar Ventures and New York-based Matrix Capital Management. In the past two weeks, Xero has nearly doubled in value to 4.6 billion New Zealand dollars (US$3.8 billion) to become the NZX-50 index's second-largest stock after construction firm Fletcher Building Ltd. Since the end of last year, Xero shares have gained 363%.

The rapid rise in Xero's stock also has cast a light on efforts by New Zealand, a small mountainous country of 4.5 million people in the South Pacific, to become less reliant on agricultural exports such as dairy and wool for growth. Tax breaks and other incentives have turned digital products from a small contributor to the economy into a NZ$2 billion export industry, with special effects in movie blockbusters such as the Oscar-winning "Avatar" and "The Hobbit" largely produced in New Zealand. Exports of computer and information services have grown at more than 10% annually since 2002, government data show.

"We can be bigger than Fonterra," Xero founder and Chief Executive Rod Drury said, referring to Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world's largest dairy exporter. "The way we think about the business long term is how do we be Facebook FB +0.69% -sized for small business. That is obviously a lot bigger than Fonterra or any New Zealand company."

Following a steep acceleration Xero encountered resistance last week in the region of NZ$40 and appears to have entered a process of consolidation and mean reversion. This has, so far, not had a great effect on the performance of the wider market. However, the New Zealand 50 Fully Gross Index is now testing the psychological 5000 and some consolidation of recent gains is looking increasingly likely.

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