Market commentaries

WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares fell as China did not set a target for gross domestic product growth, spurring concern about the global economic recovery.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 68.92 points, or 0.64%, to 10,662.63. Within the index, 29 fell, 16 stocks rose, and five were unchanged. Turnover was $100.2 million, the lowest in more than three months.

China declined to set a GDP growth target for the first time since 1990 at its annual weeklong meeting of the National Peoples’ Congress in Beijing which began yesterday.

The Chinese economy experienced its first decline in decades in the first quarter, contracting 6.8% from a year earlier, as the Covid19 pandemic derailed the world’s secondbiggest economy.

Matthew Goodson, director of Salt Funds Management, said the absence of a growth target showed China was facing the same uncertainty as the rest of the global economy, unnerving investors.

‘‘That has seen US futures off about 0.8 to 1% and the Australian market off 0.7%, but as always we tend to march to the beat of our own drum,’’ he said.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also took a tumble, down 4.6%, as Beijing announced it would impose a new security law on the semiautonomous city, heightening the risk of more protests and straining the already tense relationship between the US and China.

Mr Goodson said while hostility between the world’s two biggest economies was not centre stage on the market, it was increasingly becoming a factor before the US presidential election in November.

Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at AxiCorp, said rising tension between the US and China had compounded investors’ worries about the pace of the economic recovery from the Covid19 pandemic.

Freightways led the local market lower, falling 3.3% to $6.82. The logistics company is sensitive to the amount of activity in the domestic economy.

Last week, the Government’s annual Budget allocated stateowned rival, New Zealand Post $130 million and another $150 million of additional capital. Freightways chief executive Mark Troughear said the firm believed NZ Post was pricing below the cost of providing its courier and mail services.

Mainfreight, a more globaloriented logistic company due to report earnings next week, declined 2.1% to $35.55.

National fuel demand fell by about 80% when the country went into lockdown late in March and Marsden Point oil refinery has been operating at about half capacity the past two months.

Infratil rose 3.1% to $4.71 as investors cottoned on to the news CDC Data Centres — an Australian company in which the infrastructure investment firm holds a 40% stake — was expanding its successful business into New Zealand.

The Australian share market closed lower. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 benchmark index finished Friday down 53.4 points, or 0.96%, at 5497 points, while the broader All Ordinaries closed down 52.2 points, or 0.92%, to 5608.7.