NZ sharemarket hit lowest point in nine months

The New Zealand sharemarket reached its lowest level in nine months, with another 0.7% fall, following a month-long rout on Wall Street.

Tuesday, March 18th 2025, 6:16PM

by BusinessDesk

Home About Subscribe Why Subscribe
BusinessDesk.
News Alert Tue, 18 Mar 2025

MARKETS
NZ sharemarket hit lowest point in nine months
Graham Skellern | Tue, 18 Mar 2025

(Image: Getty)

The New Zealand sharemarket reached its lowest level in nine months, with another 0.7% fall, following a month-long rout on Wall Street.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index again weakened in the afternoon and closed at 12,076.85, down 89.29 points or 0.73% – surpassing the mark of 12,058.29 set on July 11 last year. The index has been falling since it reached 13,068.93 points on Feb 17.

There was heavy trading in market leader Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which declined 65c or 1.98% to $32.15. 2.45 million of its shares worth $79.07m changed hands, amidst a total transaction volume of 37.5m worth $218.74m.

'Relatively weak'

Jeremy Sullivan, investment adviser with Hamilton Hindin Greene, said the inflationary pressures of the Trump tariffs, the geopolitical uncertainty, and the underperformance of stocks such as Spark and Ryman Healthcare led to a weaker market.

“The local market started retrenching on a weaker-than-expected reporting season, and a silver lining is further interest rate cuts next month and in May – good for mortgage holders and investors but not for term deposit holders.

“The New Zealand economy is still relatively weak with the rate-cutting cycle yet to flow through. It will take a bit of time before people start loosening their purse strings and start spending again,” Sullivan said.

In the United States, there was another bounce-back, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average increasing 0.85% to 41,841.63 after February retail sales weren’t as bad as expected. Sales increased 0.2% against the Dow Jones estimate of 0.6% gain.

The S&P 500 was up 0.64% to 5675.12 points, and the technology-driven Nasdaq Composite was still in correction territory, even though it had gained 0.31% to 17,808.66. The Nasdaq was at 20,026.77 points in mid-February.

Investors in the US and elsewhere are struggling to keep pace with President Donald Trump’s fast-changing tariff policies, along with the aggressive cost-cutting by Elon Musk’s DOGE department, which has raised worries about corporate and consumer confidence.

Local stocks

Back home, there was profit-taking in a2 Milk, down 36c or 3.7% to $9.36, and Spark gained 1.5c to $2.075.

Serko fell 12c or 3.17% to $3.67; Summerset was down 20c to $11.66; Briscoe Group shed 10c or 2.17% to $64.50; KMD Brands decreased 1.5c or 4% to 36c; Napier Port declined 5c or 1.89% to $2.60; and Mainfreight eased 90c to $65.85.

SkyCity fell 5c or 4.07% to $1.18; Sky TV was down 7c or 2.89% to $2.35; Sanford declined 10c or 2.1% to $4.66; Tourism Holdings decreased 4c or 2.35% to $1.66; NZX shed 3.9c or 2.5% to $1.52; and Rakon was down 2c or 3.64% to 53c.

Smartpay, considering two takeover bids, increased 3c or 3.53% to 88c; NZME was up 4c or 3.54% to $1.17; Foley Wines added 3c or 4.55% to 69c; and Scott Technology gained 56c or 2.7% to $1.90.

Synlait Milk collected 2c or 2.11% to 97c; Green Cross Health improved 2c or 2.5% to 82c and 2 Cheap Cars was up 2c or 2.7% to 76c.

Contact Energy was down 8c to $8.52 after following Meridian in reporting low hydro lakes. South Island controlled storage was 71% of mean and North Island 98% on March 13.

Mass market electricity and gas sales in February were 237GWh compared with 252GWh in the same month last year.

Contact told the market that the expert consenting panel convened under the Covid-19 Recovery Act 2020 has declined its consent application for the 330MW, 55-turbine Southland Wind Farm.

Chief executive Mike Fuge said the decision, which can be appealed, was a significant setback for NZ’s decarbonisation and Contact’s mission to improve electricity security of supply.

Elsewhere in the energy sector, Mercury was down 7c to $5.55; Manawa declined 13c or 2.71% to $4.67; and Vector decreased 8c or 12.95% to $4.02.

Bremworth and AIA

After changing its board following shareholder pressure, carpet maker Bremworth increased by 3c or 5% to 63c. Rob Hewett, now chairing Silver Fern Farms and Bremworth, Julie Bohnenn, Murray Dyer and Trevor Burt replace Paul Izzard, Katherine Turner and Dianne Williams. George Adams and John Rae are staying as directors.

The new directors come on the board straightaway and will need to stand for election at the next annual meeting. A special meeting to consider board changes is no longer required.

Auckland International Airport's stock was down 6c to $7.87 after the announcement that French company Lagardere will operate the four duty-free stores in arrivals and departures for the next eight years.

Lagardere, which operates duty-free shops in 28 countries and 105 airports, has been running the Auckland stores in a joint venture with AWPL, trading as Aelia Duty Free.

Tower, last traded at $1.457, halted trading while cancelling one share for every ten shares held, returning $45m to shareholders.

Tags: Market Close