NZ sharemarket see-saws with near 1% fall

The New Zealand sharemarket continued its see-sawing act with a near 1% fall and leading stocks were trimmed ahead of the latest reporting season.

Thursday, May 11th 2023, 6:29PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell steadily all day and closed at 11,887.76, down 99.54 points or 0.83% after gaining 0.82% the day before. It’s been a similar pattern for the past month – up one day and down the next.

There were 82 decliners and 44 gainers on the main board with 23.8 million shares worth $109.94m changing hands.

Greg Smith, head of retail with Devon Funds Management, said there’s normally a vacuum of information before a reporting season (which starts next week) and it makes the market more prone to swings.

“There’s still ambiguity over how the economy is playing out and people will be closely following the forecasts from the government in its Budget.

“The cost-of-living issue will be an interesting backdrop for the budget, with still a lot of pressure on food prices. But on a monthly basis it does look like food prices are starting to ease,” Smith said.

Annual food prices increased 12.5% for the year to April compared with 12.1% in March and were the largest rise since September 1987 including the introduction of GST in 1986.

Fruit and vegetable prices were the biggest driver, up 22.5%, and grocery items increased 14% compared with April last year.

The latest inflation number in the United States was lower than expected with the April consumer price index rising 4.9% from a year ago, less than economists’ prediction of a 5% gain.

Investors flocked to the technology stocks on signs that US inflation is easing. It is well under the peak of 9% last June.

The Nasdaq Composite increased 1.04% to 12,306.44 points and has gained 17.58% so far this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.22% to 33,487.87 points, and S&P 500 was up 0.24% to 4129.2.

At home, Ebos Group was down 89c or 1.97% to $44.40; Mainfreight shed $1.89 or 2.64% to $69.60; Fletcher Building declined 7c to $4.68; Fisher and Paykel Healthcare decreased 34c to $26.35; Summerset Group gave up 9c to $8.15; and Skellerup Holdings was down 10c or 2.06% to $4.754.

Leading energy stocks Meridian and Mercury were both down 4.5c to $5.47 and $6.55 respectively, and Genesis declined 5c or 1.81% to $2.72.

Port of Tauranga shed 7c to $6.48; Serko was down 7c or 3.08% to $2.20; a2 Milk declined 5c to $5.63; and Restaurant Brands decreased 13c or 1.7% to $7.50.

Retailers Hallenstein Glasson fell 36c or 5.26% to $6.49, and Briscoe Group was up 5c to $4.45.

KMD Brands, down 2c or 1.82% to $1.08, has appointed Megan Welch as chief executive of the Kathmandu business. Welch was senior vice president and general manager of Asia for retailer Crocs.

Other decliners were Steel & Tube down 2c or 1.9% to $1.03; Rakon decreasing 3c or 2.78% to $1.05; PaySauce falling 3c or 10.34% to 26c; and Gentrack shedding 14c or 4% to $3.36.

Tourism Holdings declined 6c to $3.87; Move Logistics was down 4c or 4.44% to 86c; and Embark Education decreased 2c or 3.17% to 61c.

Seeka increased 8c or 3.02% to $2.73; Tower rebounded 1.5c or 2.65% to 58c; MHM Automation was up 2c or 2.13% to 9c; Marsden Maritime Holdings added 8c to $5.13; Accordant Group gained 3c or 1.94% to $1.58; and NZ King Salmon Investments improved 1c or 5% to 21c.

NZ-bred stocks listed on the United States Nasdaq Composite index had contrasting days after reporting their latest financial results.

Allbirds, which makes shoes and clothing out of merino wool, was down 8.09% to US$1.25 (NZ$1.96) after reporting a 13.4% in revenue to US$54.4 and a net loss of $35.2m for the three months ending March.

Rocket Lab was up 4.12% to US$4.12 (NZ$6.46) after reporting quarterly revenue of US$54.9m, up 35%, with forecast revenue of $60-$63m for the three months to June.

Rocket Lab nearly doubled its quarterly net loss to US$45.6m as it spends millions developing its bigger Neutron rocket for launch in the United States next year.

NZ RegCo, the compliance arm of the NZ stock exchange, and the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) have signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperating and monitoring the NZ capital markets.

Priorities under the arrangements include issuers’ continuous disclosure obligations and oversight and enforcement of the prohibitions on insider trading and market manipulation.

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