What an end to last week! Jacinda Ardern and the New Zealand Labour Party took out a landslide victory in the general election with 49.1% of the party votes (preliminary, as special votes still need to be counted). The official results will come in on the 6th of November. This would give the Labour Party approximately 64 of the 120 seats in parliament, enough to govern alone. Additionally, ACT and the Greens had excellent nights, grabbing 10 seats each (8.0% and 7.6% respectively), while the Maori party managed to get back into parliament, wining one electorate seat. It was an abysmal night for the National party, who end up with only 35 seats (26.8% of the party votes). This was about the worst result predicted by polls, with the last poll before the election giving National a minimum of 28%.
This result was historic, as no party has ever won a majority in NZ under the MMP (Mixed Member Proportional) system, and shows how much of an impact that Covid-19 and the year 2020 has had on the political landscape.
The market reaction to the results has been quiet, with the S&P NZX50 down only 0.02% at the time of writing and after having started the day up.
In other news, Covid-19 continues to dominate headlines around the world, with many countries in Europe facing a new wave of infections. This has led to increased public health measures in many European countries, such as France, Spain, Belgium, and Germany. Globally, cases have surpassed 40 million and daily cases are in the high 300,000 to low 400,000 range. The US is still leading with 8.3 million cases, with India not far behind on 7.5 million.
On the Brexit front, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has attempted to put an end to Brexit talks, stating that the UK 'should get ready for January the first'. Although, this may be a negotiating ploy.
The three major US indices (S&P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones) all ended last week slightly up, with rather significant volatility likely due to increasing Covid-19 cases and the upcoming general election. Additionally, the possibility that a stimulus bill (where the US government would give companies and individuals money) will be passed by the US government is looking likely one moment, then impossible the next, mostly due to tweets by Trump.
My personal portfolio performed well last week, up 2%. Key movers were the shipping and logistics company Mainfreight (MFT) and healthcare company EBOS (EBO), up 12% and 8% respectively. Additionally, a 4% increase in the price of my largest holding- Meridian Energy (MEL)- helped to push up my portfolio.
