Shares drop as investors wait for RBNZ decision

Investors’ fear of missing out (FOMO) last week did not make an appearance in the benchmark share index today as the markets wait on the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s monetary policy decision on Wednesday.

Monday, July 11th 2022, 7:01PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 63 points or 0.56%, to 11,106.14. Turnover was extremely light at $76.4 million.

Peter McIntyre, an investment advisor at Craigs Investment Partners, said NZ’s markets had been quiet today as investors were stepping back from the hasty buy-up behaviour that occurred last week which led to some FOMO behaviour.

McIntyre said NZ’s market had started higher but stocks like Ryman Healthcare, A2 Milk and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare struggled today and “dragged down the index”.

Retirement home operator Ryman Healthcare was down 0.89% to $8.87 while A2 Milk fell 2.7% to $4.97.

Fisher & Healthcare Paykel was down 2.7% to $20.83 by early evening trading.

McIntyre said Musk’s decision to terminate his Twitter takeover deal would have an influence on technology stocks but it hadn’t really flowed into NZ’s market today – although that could change in the coming week.

Twitter’s share price fell more than 10% after Elon Musk said he wanted to terminate his takeover deal, something he is not easily able to do and will result in a legal battle.

Medicinal cannabis firm Greenfern Industries was down 7.6% to 17.1 cents today, an unexpected drop for the shares which had been climbing the index over the past two weeks.

On the other hand, competing medical cannabis company Cannasouth was up 1.4% to 37 cents.

Hallenstein Glasson Holdings shares ended the day up 2.7% to $5.34 after it revealed the company had appointed a new chief executive to its Hallenstein Brothers subsidiary, former Ben Sherman brand manager Rob Brown.

Investore Property today began its share buyback programme with the property stock purchasing up to 5% of its shares on the open market. Its shares were flat at the end of the day at $1.69 per share.

Summerset Group’s sales fell 14% in the quarter from what was a record period a year earlier but its shares went in the opposite direction today and were up 0.5% to $10.25.

The Reserve Bank of NZ (RBNZ) is releasing its Monetary Policy Review on Wednesday where it is widely expected to reaffirm its views from the May Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) and announce another 50 basis point hike in the official cash rate (OCR).

Independent treasury adviser Peter Cavanuagh told BusinessDesk on Friday that if the RBNZ did anything other than raise by 50bp, there would be a lot of moves in the market. “Anything other than 50 basis points would be a shock as the Reserve Bank has been known to deliver to market expectations,” he said.

“It would have to be justified as well, as the risk is they’ll only go 25 basis points because they're worried about the data coming in – but that would be totally contrary to their mantra about moving hard and fast.”

The NZ dollar was trading at 61.68 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, down from 61.84 cents yesterday. The trade-weighted index was at 70.31, from 70.34 yesterday.

Tags: Market Close