NZ sharemarket slips as Wall St rally continues

The New Zealand sharemarket lacked direction and tumbled nearly half a percent on another quiet day's trading while Wall Street continued to rally.

Tuesday, November 21st 2023, 6:32PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index slipped at the opening, recovered at lunchtime and then fell back again to close at 11,160.64, down 46.82 points or 0.42%. The index traded in a range of 11,11,145.99 and 11,213.07 points.

There were 73 gainers and 62 decliners over the whole market on volumes of 27.57 million share transactions worth $113.19m.

On the economic front, New Zealand’s trade deficit narrowed to $1.7 billion last month, with exports falling to $5.4b and imports down to $7.1b.

Jeremy Sullivan, investment advisor with Hamilton Hindin Greene, said imports cost more than exports, and the trade deficit was a little larger than the market expected. This could lead to an increase in the NZ dollar.

“Amongst the exports, infant milk formula sales were up 17%, and that’s encouraging for the likes of a2 Milk,” he said.

The NZ dollar strengthened to US60.7c against the American greenback at 6pm NZ time.

In the United States, amongst the turmoil of OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman being fired and then joining Microsoft, the markets made further gains.

The S&P 500 Index exited correction territory after increasing 0.74% to 4547.38 points. Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.589% to 35,151.04 points, and Nasdaq Composite rose 1.13% to 14,284.53.

Microsoft reached an all-time high with a gain of 2.05% to US$377.44 ($NZ621.63) after telling the market Altman will lead its new advanced AI research team.

Ebos watch

At home, it was all quiet on the Ebos front, with the company asking for another trading halt extension.

Market leaders Meridian Energy and Fisher and Paykel Healthcare were down 8c to $5.01 and 14c to $22.09, respectively.

Ryman Healthcare, which reports next week, declined 18c or 3.16% to $5.58; a2 Milk was down 11c or 2.47% to $4.35; Port of Tauranga decreased 10c or 1.89% to $5.20; SkyCity shed 4c or 2.3% to $2.30; and Sky TV was down 5c or 1.81% to $2.72.

Other decliners were NZME shedding 3c or 3.33% to 87c, NZX decreasing 2c or 1.87% to $1.05, and Smartpay down 5c or 3.23% to $1.50.

Freightways was up 10c to $7.91; Mainfreight gained 69c to $65.19; Vulcan Steel increased 21c or 2.76% to $7.82; Sanford added 7c or 1.83% to $3.89; and Colonial Motor Company collected 21c or 2.31% to $9.30.

Seeka was up 15c or 6.12% to $2.60; Millennium & Copthorne Hotels NZ gained 5c or 2.7% to $1.90; and ikeGPS added 2c or 3.77% to 55c. Among retailers, Hallenstein Glasson rebounded 16c or 2.78% to $5.91, and KMD Brands gained 2c or 2.53% to 81c.

Turners Automotive, up 2c to $4.25, and Gentrack, down 2c to $5.32, are tipped to enter the NZX top 50 following the December quarterly index review. Synlait, down 2c to $1.29, and Pacific Edge, up 0.005c or 4.81% to 10.9c, are expected to drop out.

AFT Pharmaceuticals, up 3c to $3.39, told the market its first aid antiseptic cream Crystaderm has been approved for sale in China.

NZ King Salmon Investments increased 1.2c or 6.06% to 21c after announcing an exclusive distribution agreement with China Resources Food Supply Chain (CRFSC), which must place minimum monthly salmon orders of 4,000kgs.

CRFSC has already sold 60,000kgs of salmon products into mainland China since May. On an annualised basis, this would represent 2.5% of NZ King’s volume of products sold.

Telecommunications company Vital rose 4c or 17.39% to 27c after telling shareholders at the annual that it is looking to maintain turnaround momentum.

Tags: Market Close