NZX50 falls as investors 'take a breather'

The New Zealand market slipped on Monday as investors took it easy to start off a busy week of earnings and annual meetings.

Monday, November 14th 2022, 6:02PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 index decreased 79.79 points, or 0.7%, to 11,231.97 points.

Across the main board, 60 shares rose and 78 fell. Turnover was light at $88.7 million.

Craigs Investment Partners investment adviser Peter McIntyre said investors had “taken a breather” after strong trading days at the end of last week.

“We are the first market out of the blocks at the start of the week, so investors are probably just waiting to see how the US opens overnight.”

He said it was shaping up to be a busy week for the local market with earnings from companies, including Napier Port, Sanford and Infratil, and annual meetings, including Contract Energy and KMD Brands.

The market was dragged lower by My Food Bag, down 5% to 57c. That was followed by Synlait Milk, down 4.9% to $2.9.

Pacific Edge fell by 3.2% to 45.5c.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, which makes up a significant chunk of the index, was also down by 2.6% to $19.43. As was Mainfreight, down by 1.2% to $72.52.

Outside the benchmark index, NZ King Salmon was the biggest decliner across the main board, down 5.7% to 25c.

On Friday, it announced it had received resource consent to begin farming the first open ocean finfish site in the Cook Strait.

At the other end, power companies helped bolster the index with Genesis Energy up 1.84% to $2.77 and Mercury NZ up 0.94% to $5.39.

Auckland International Airport was also up 0.6% to $7.755.

Import and export software company TradeWindow led the main board higher, up by 4.8% to 65c, after it announced it had partnered with the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) in a bid to build trade digitisation capability within NZ’s export community.

Other increases included media company NZME, up by 3.5% to $1.19, Burger Fuel Group, up 32.5% to 32c, and T & G Global, up 2.30% to $2.67.

The NZ dollar further extended its rally over the past few days trading at 61.10 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, up from 60.05 cents on Friday.

The trade-weighted index was at 71.22 up from 70.89 at the end of last week.

The kiwi dollar was up one cent as of Monday 3pm compared to the same time last Friday.

Currency trader OFX wrote this morning that the NZ dollar was stronger heading into the weekend helped by the tailwinds of firmer risk appetite, a stronger Chinese yuan and higher commodity prices.

Tags: Market Close