Market commentaries

WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares fell as investors paused to digest the extra support from the government and Reserve Bank announced this week and what it means for the economy.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 14.48 points, or 0.1%, to 10,730.68. Within the index, 26 stocks rose, 17 fell and seven were unchanged. Turnover was $157 million.

This week, the Reserve Bank announced it would buy up to $60 billion of central and local government bonds — almost doubling its quantitative easing programme — and Finance Minster Grant Robertson oversaw a budget pumping money into mitigating the fallout from Covid19, including a $50 billion fund specifically for the response.

Yesterday, the local market was weaker, ignoring stronger leads from global equity markets, with lighter volumes relative to what has been seen during the Covid19 crisis.

Shane Solly, a portfolio manager at Harbour Asset Management, said investors were absorbing the changes to fiscal and monetary policy.

‘‘There is a little bit of investors thinking ‘let’s just pause here’ and the market is pretty much flat on the day.’’

Tourism Holdings led the market lower, falling 9.4% to $1.44. Mr Solly said investors may have been hoping for more support for the tourism industry in yesterday’s budget announcement.

Air New Zealand was also weaker, dropping 2% to $1.22. Auckland International Airport rose 0.2% to $5.70.

Meridian Energy declined 2.1% to $4.61 and Contact Energy fell 1.9% to $6.11. Both released data today showing national electricity demand in April fell by 13.7% compared to last year.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 1.9% to $30.50.

Freightways posted the day’s biggest gain, rising 5.2% to $7.25 off Thursday’s announcement it had secured new banking facilities coupled with activity picking up as the economy resumes.

Whipsaw action continued on the Australian sharemarket, as the S&P/ASX200 benchmark index finished up 76.1 points, or 1.43%, to 5404.8 points, while the All Ordinaries index was 74.8 points higher, or 1.38%, at 5492.8. — BusinessDesk/AAP