by BusinessDesk
The S&P/NZX 50 Index made ground till a mid-afternoon dip and closed at 12,209.05, down 40.5 points or 0.33% after falling more than 2% in the previous two trading days.
Volumes were strong with 51.48 million share transactions worth $228.24m.
Global marketer a2 Milk, up 3c to $8.83, dominated the trading with 3.5m of its shares worth $30.9m changing hands.
'A fluid situation'
In the United States, investors switched their attention from the latest trade policy to softening inflation, with the Nasdaq Composite bouncing back 1.22% to 17,648.45 points and the S&P 500 gaining 0.49% to 5,599.3. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2% to 41,350.93 points.
The S&P500 has fallen 5% this year but gained 23% during last year, and the Nasdaq Composite is down 9% after increasing 28% last year. The Magnificent Seven technology stocks have declined 15% year to date but rose more than 65% last year.
The US February consumer price index was lower than expected at 0.2%, representing annual inflation of 2.8% against forecasts of 2.9% and down from the previous rate of 3%.
Jeremy Sullivan, an investment adviser with Hamilton Hindin Greene, said the latest inflation figure resulted in a slight improvement in the oversold US market.
“The inflation was a good piece of news, which we haven’t had for a while. It seems like an age in this market, and it’s a fluid situation from day to day relating to any escalation in the Ukraine War and changes in US tariff policy,” he said.
Local stocks
At home, Ryman Healthcare was down 9c or 3.07% to $2.84 after completing the retail entitlement offer and raising the $1b to reset the balance sheet – paying down debt and reducing gearing from 37.3% to 23.1%.
The institutional placement raised $721m and the retail offer $280m, and the new ordinary shares allocated to shareholders will be traded on Monday.
Sullivan said that retail investors did not take up 53m shares worth $161m and were left with the underwriter to find a new home.
“That’s a large line of shares that has to go somewhere, and there may be some short-term selling pressure. But the longer-term fundamentals will drive Ryman’s share price with the company having net tangible assets of $4.95 a share,” he said.
Sky TV increased 10c or 4.15% to $2.51 after telling the market it has secured the NZ broadcasting rights for this year’s British and Irish Lions rugby tour of Australia and extended coverage of the US PGA and Senior PGA golf championships for the next six years.
Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down 37c to $32.95; Freightways shed 29c or 2.59% to $10.90; Fletcher Building declined 11c or 3.55% to $3.17; Infratil shed 17c to $10.10; Gentrack decreased 20c or 1.9% to $10.30; and Summerset dipped 11.8c to $11.50,
In the energy sector, Contact decreased 7c to $8.85; Genesis increased 7c or 3.18% to $2.27; and Vector was up 5c to $4.19.
In the retail sector, Briscoe Group gained 6c to $4.66; Hallenstein Glasson was down 13c to $8.09; and Michael Hill declined 2c or 4.08% to 47c.
SkyCity declined 3c or 2.29% to $1.28; Kiwi Property was down 2c or 2.19% to 89.5c; Oceania Healthcare shed 2c or 3.08% to 63c; and Bremworth decreased 2c or 3.03% to 64c.
Smartpay eased 2c or 3.13% to 62c; Cooks Coffee fell 2.5c or 8.77% to 26c; and ikeGPS shed 3c or 3.61% to 80c
Auckland International Airport was up 15c or 1.9% to $8.05; Ebos Group added 63c or 1.72% to $37.29; Goodman Property Trust added 3.5c or 1.81% to $1.97; Delegat Group increased 13c or 2.91% to $4.60; and PaySauce was up 0.008c or 4.17% to 20c.
Tower collected 2.5c or 1.75%^ to $1.45; Millennium & Copthorne Hotels NZ gained 5c or 2.13% to $2.40; NZX was up 3c or 1.88% to $1.63; PGG Wrightson increased 6c or 3.09% to $2; and Synlait added 2c or 2.2% to 93.
Spark, down 3c to $2.21, has signed an expanded partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to deliver automation and efficiency benefits of a flexible, hybrid cloud services model instead of managing within its IT environments.
NZME was up 1c to $1.19. The broadcaster and publisher had earlier named six nominations associated with major shareholders James Grenon and Osmium Partners, who are vying to become board directors at the annual meeting on April 29.
The director nominations are Grenon, Philip Crump, Des Gittings, Simon West (Grenon associates), John Lewis and Adam Hoydysh (Osmium associates).
| « Results don't trump uncertainty as NZ sharemarket tumbles 1.3% |
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