NZ shares fall as Eroad near all-time low

New Zealand's sharemarket declined on Wednesday, with fleet management company Eroad falling to just 10 cents above its all-time lowest share price.

Wednesday, June 22nd 2022, 6:51PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 22 points, or 0.2%, to 10,678.66. Turnover was $143.9 million.

Eroad had a second day as the index’s biggest decliner, falling more than 5% to $1.57 and bringing its decline over the past year to almost 75%.

The stock traded as low as $1.56 today, which is only just above its lowest ever trade, which was at $1.45 in October 2016. Eroad listed at $3.52 in 2014 and has traded as high as $6.77.

But it wasn’t just Eroad in decline, other growth stocks were also hit hard: Pacific Edge dropped 4% to 70 cents and Air New Zealand declined 2.7% to 54 cents – both are down more than 40% year-to-date.

Key indices on Wall Street were up as much as 2.5% overnight, but investors in Asia were writing it off as a “bear market rally” which will not last, said Oanda analyst Jeffrey Halley.

“It seems that markets just can’t shake off fears of intensive central bank tightening and recession nerves,” he said.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, the NZ index’s largest stock, fell 2.1% to $19.20, and Ryman Healthcare slipped 2% to $8.80.

Fletcher Building jumped 5.5% to $4.84 after it confirmed its earnings guidance of $750m in the 2022 financial year. It also said its margin in the second half of the year would be 9.5%.

Earlier this week, an analyst at Craigs Investment Partners said home building would remain above pre-pandemic levels and support the construction firm’s business. He gave the stock a target price of $6.28.

Skellerup Holdings also had a strong gain, climbing 5.5% to $4.84 on higher than average volume of 280,000 shares.

Shares in Seeka climbed 0.4% to $4.72 after it completed this year’s harvest with low volumes, but said future years were expected to be better.

The kiwifruit farmer harvested 17% less of the Hayward variety than last year, down on the industry-wide estimate of a 10% reduction. Its SunGold crop was down 10.2%.

The NZ dollar was trading 62.95 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, down from 63.39 cents yesterday. The trade-weighted index was at 71.10, from 71.34 yesterday.

Tags: Market Close