Market commentaries
AUCKLAND: New Zealand shares fell yesterday as investors took a breather after a round of United StatesChina trade talks wound up. Ryman Healthcare gave back some recent gains and Summerset dipped.
The S&P/NZX 50 index fell 28.06 points, or 0.3%, to 8919.16. Within the index, 23 stocks fell, 24 gained and three were unchanged. Turnover was $123 million.
Delegates from China and the US wrapped up three days of trade talks and markets had been cheered by the first facetoface negotiations since both sides agreed to a 90day truce.
China’s Commerce Ministry said the talks were extensive, and helped establish a foundation for the resolution of each others’ concerns, according to Reuters. However, there were few concrete details.
Equity markets were also cheered when minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s December meeting underscored the central bank is willing to be patient about any future monetary tightening.
‘‘We have had four days of stronger equity markets globally as investors anticipated the potential for a USChina deal,’’ Shane Solly, a portfolio manager at Harbour Asset Management, said.
The ‘‘softer tone’’ from Federal Reserve officials had added to the upbeat mood, he said.
However, ‘‘we are having a bit of a pause’’ and some stocks that gained — on Wednesday in particular — had seen some profittaking, he said.
Ryman Healthcare was down 3.3% to $10.98 on slightly higher than normal volumes with 1 million shares changing hands. Fellow retirement village operator and developer Summerset shed 1.9% to $6.18 on very light volume. Earlier it said it sold 193 occupation rights in the three months to December 31, versus 204 in the previous year, but that it had met its 2018 target to build 450 new units.
SkyCity shed 1.4% to $3.53 while Fletcher Building was down 0.2% to $4.97.
Kathmandu, which has been hard hit after reporting a weakerthanexpected Christmas trading period, shed 1.3% to $2.26. Volumes, however, were very thin and only about 69,000 shares changed hands.
Stocks such as Heartland Group, up 2.2% to $1.42, and Gentrack, up 2.8% to $5.09, and Skellerup, which added 1% to $2.04, fared better. Mr Solly noted they tended to be more favoured by local investors.
The heaviest trading was in Spark, which again accounted for almost a quarter of total trading volume. It ended up 0.2% at $4.16. According to Mr Solly, it was well held by international investors and Australian institutions so it tended ‘‘to get more activity’’.
Chorus shed 1.9% to $4.73.
Trade Me was also heavily traded and 3.2 million shares changed hands, versus its average daily volume of 855,741 over the past three months. Trade Me was unchanged at $6.33.
Mr Solly said investors would now be shifting their attention to the upcoming reporting season. He noted that yesterday’s ‘‘Truckometer’’ data from ANZ Bank, which tracks heavy and light traffic as a gross domestic product indicator, was pointing to softness in the economy.
It was ‘‘pretty weak’’.
‘‘We had been anticipating the New Zealand economy would come off the boil and it is.
‘‘We will be looking pretty carefully at companies that are New Zealandfocused. There could be a little bit of risk around some of their earnings,’’ he said.
A The Australian sharemarket had a flat finish to the day, as gains in the energy sector following another surge in oil prices was not enough to offset an almost 4% fall in BHP shares.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed up 17 points, or 0.29%, to 5795.3 by late afternoon.
The broader All Ordinaries was up 15.5 points, or 0.27%, to 5853.9.
The energy sector gained 0.7% after oil prices again rose, up over 4% in offshore trade, with property trusts, materials and utilities the other major gainers.
But those gains were not enough to make up for the fall in BHP shares, after the market giant paid shareholders a fully franked special dividend of $1.43 per share following the sale of its shale oil assets.
The Australian dollar was buying US71.84c, from 71.55c on Wednesday.