Market commentaries

AUCKLAND: New Zealand shares fell, as a sevenmonth low for a2 Milk outweighed the revival in appetite among investors for highyielding stocks such as Meridian Energy and Chorus.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 14.62 points, or 0.1%, to 10,873.33. Within the index, 21 stocks fell, 26 rose and three were unchanged. Turnover was $102.1 million with four stocks trading on volumes of more than a million shares.

A2 led the market lower, down 3.1% at $13.28 on a volume of 608,000 shares, less than its 90day average of 822,000. The milk marketing firm has been on the back foot since China Mengniu Dairy Co announced a $A1.5 billion takeover bid for Bellamy’s Australia, raising the spectre of a tougher competitor for a2.

‘‘I think there are still some questions being asked around the Chinese takeover and how that is going to affect a2 in the key Chinese markets,’’ said Greg Smith, head of research at Fat Prophets.

Sky Network Television gave up some of yesterday’s gain in relatively busy trading, down 0.9% at $1.15, with 1.8 million shares changing hands. The payTV operator rose yesterday amid a torrent of news about Spark New Zealand’s livestreaming issues over the weekend.

Spark was the most traded stock on a volume of 3.5 million shares, compared to its 90day average of 3.3 million. It rose 1.4% to $4.49, continuing to defy bad publicity over its rugby world cup coverage at the weekend. The telco said its streaming service performed well for Monday night’s matches.

‘‘The stock has been knocked around,’’ said Chris Timms, an investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners, adding that its strength was interesting given the stock recently paid a dividend.

Mr Timms said dividend payers were key to investors at present. Meridian posted the day’s biggest gain, up 2.1% at $5.25 on a volume of 973,000 shares.

Chorus rose 1.5% to $5.15, having shed rights to its dividend yesterday. Investors would be looking ahead to tomorrow’s Reserve Bank announcement on the official cash rate, Mr Timms added.

Summerset Group rose 1.3% to $6.47 after the retirement village operator said it was proceeding with its Australian expansion plans with the purchase of land in Melbourne.

Ryman Healthcare, which already has villages in Australia, fell 0.5% to $13. Metlifecare dropped 2% to $4.37, and Arvida Group rose 0.7% to $1.45.

Air New Zealand was down 0.2% at $2.68 after the national carrier said it has signed contracts for its multibilliondollar purchase of eight Dreamliner 78710 aircraft.

Z Energy increased 0.2% to $8.15 on a volume of 1.2 million shares. Chief financial officer Lindis Jones told the Commerce Commission’s conference on the fuel market that heightened competition has lowered the company’s return on capital employed to 8.5% this year, and it expects that to fall to 7% next year.

Outside the benchmark index, Tower fell 5.8% to 72.5 cents.

Comvita rose 0.9% to $3.31 after telling NZX Regulation it complied with disclosure rules. The honey products maker got a ‘‘please explain’’ note from the stock market supervisor after its price jumped 21% in two trading sessions.

Serko increased 0.5% to $4.06 after the travel app developer said it was not affected by the Thomas Cook liquidation and that it had no commercial relationship or financial exposure to the global travel group.

The Australian sharemarket finished flat yesterday, with losses for tech stocks and miners and gains for consumer discretionary and bank stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished down 0.8 points, or 0.01%, to 6748.9 points, while the broader All Ordinaries was down 4.5 points, or 0.07%, to 6856.6 points. — BusinessDesk/AAP