NZ sharemarket declined almost 2% this week

The New Zealand sharemarket fell nearly 2% for the week after having to soak up the $1.3 billion sale of Auckland International Airport shares, with the airport now increasing its influence on the index.

Friday, December 6th 2024, 6:17PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index was weaker in the afternoon on Friday and closed at 12,809.59 points, down 87.36 points or 0.68%.

The index declined 1.97% for the week and is ahead just over 9% for the year to date. Trading was lighter, with 32.3 million shares worth $135.47m changing hands.

'Without a meaningful change'

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said the market absorbed “a chunky placement of airport shares, and we’ve seen a pull-back today".

With its increased liquidity, Auckland International Airport – down 15.5c or 1.87% to $8.12 on trade worth $23.73m – will automatically move to No. 2 on the NZX index on Monday with a weighting of 10.1%.

The biggest influencer, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, was down 48c to $36.57 and will see its weighting slightly reduced from 16.8%, and Infratil drops to No 3 with a weighting of around 9.5%.

Solly said there’s some wariness out there after data has shown the recovery in the economy is taking longer than people wanted, and consumer stocks were under pressure.

ANZ Research said the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update on Dec 17 is expected to show a potential delay to surplus (to the year ending June 2029), a slightly more pessimistic tone from the Treasury on the economic outlook, and an upgrade to bond issuance guidance

“Without a meaningful change to discretionary fiscal policy settings, the half-year update is likely to have very few implications for monetary policy compared to the Budget update.

“Fiscal policy is still expansionary (the government is still running sizable deficits), but those deficits are expected to narrow over the next few years towards an eventual surplus (which hopefully arrives before the next inevitable crisis comes along),” ANZ said.

Other stocks

Consumer stocks Freightways fell 35c or 3.27% to $10.34; The Warehouse was down 4c or 3.81% to $1.01; Sky TV declined 14c or 5.3% to $2.50; SkyCity shed 4c or 2.76% to $1.41; and Metro Performance Glass decreased 0.003c or 5.45% to 5.2c.

Gentrack was down 21c to $13.89; Mainfreight shed 89c to $72.50; Skellerup eased 8c to $5.15; and Ryman Healthcare decreased 14c or 3.1% to $4.37.

Colonial Motor declined 19c or 2.81% to $6.56; Scales Corp decreased 10c or 2.47% to $3.95; Comvita shed 3c or 3.45% to 84c; South Port NZ fell 30c or 5.36% to $5.30; and NZME was down 2c or 1.87% to $1.05.

Tourism Holdings decreased by 2c to $1.91 after restructuring part of its business. The company has combined the chief financial officer and chief people and transformation officer roles, with Ollie Farnsworth being appointed to the new position. He has worked there for seven years.

Tourism Holdings has closed the Melbourne sub-assembly plant with the loss of 100 jobs in Australian manufacturing. Support office roles in the United States have been reduced, resulting in savings of more than $500,000 a year. Tourism Holdings is targeting $12m in cost savings in the 2027 financial year.

Solly said Tourism Holdings has had to make some tough decisions because of the ongoing difficult trading conditions, and investors are looking for a recovery in recreational vehicle rentals and sales.

Infratil was down 12c to $12.48 amidst speculation that one of the shareholders in CDC Data Centres was looking to sell $2b worth of shares, and Infratil may consider increasing its stake (48%).

Wine exporters Delegat Group declined 11c or 2.14% to $5.04, and Foley Wines increased 5c or 7.69% to 70c.

Spark gained 3.5c to $2.87; T&G Global increased 4c or 2.78% to $1.48; Vulcan Steel added 18c or 2.33% to $7.940; Restaurant Brands was up 17c or 4.55% to $3.91; Oceania Healthcare improved 3c or 4.17% to 75c; and Precinct Properties collected 2.5c or 2.09% to $1.22.

Cooks Coffee, down 0.005c to 29.5c, told the market that its Esquires brand will operate four cafes in Dairygold’s co-op superstores in Ireland. The contract is for an initial period of 10 years.

Being AI was unchanged at 36.5c on very light volume after resuming trading and telling the market it was going ahead with the sale of Being Consultant following an agreement with the purchaser, 2384 Limited Partnership.

Tags: Market Close