Market commentary

WELLINGTON: The more defensive and smaller New Zealand sharemarket had limited damage yesterday following the wipeout on Wall Street when inflation came in hotter than expected.

With United States indices had their worst day since June 2020 and the Australian market fell nearly 2.5%, but the S&P/NZX 50 Index held firm, — and actually rose at the end.

The index fell at the opening from 11,769.74 to 11,632.51 points but then traded steadily, closing down 104.11 points at 11,658.04.

There were 104 decliners and 31 gainers over the whole market on volume of 26.86 million share transactions worth $117.51 million.

Investors’ hopes of slowing inflation were dashed when the US August consumer price index rose 0.1% after economists predicted a fall of 0.1%. This brought the annual inflate rate to 8.3% instead of the expected 8.1%, but down from 8.5% in July.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.94% to 31,104.97. The S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 2.44% to 6838.4 points at 6pm NZ time.

Forsyth Barr investment adviser Dan Stratful said there were renewed fears central banks would need to increase interest rates more aggressively.

Decliners among leading stocks included Fisher and Paykel Healthcare $20.22 (down 30c); Auckland International Airport $7.60 (10c); Ebos Group $38.70 (68c); Mainfreight shed $73 ($1.51); Spark $5.315 (11.5c); and Fletcher Building $5.50 (13c).

Among energy stocks, Contact fell 6c to $7.84; Mercury lost 8c to $5.96; and Meridian rose 7.5c to $5.075.

Synlait slipped 5c to $3.50; Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund fell 5c to $3.40; Delegat Group shed 20c to $11; Restaurant Brands lost 11c to $8.57; and Vista Group fell 5c $1.55.

Briscoe Group gained 11c to $5.46 after reporting a solid firsthalf result. Fellow retailer The Warehouse Group added 12c to $3.43.

Scott Technology, down 5c to $2.84, has signed a $11.2 million deal to deliver a fullyautomated lamb processing system to Silver Fern Farms’ Finegand plant in South Otago.

Among the gainers were Port of Tauranga $6.69 (up 9c); Skellerup Holdings $5.73 (8c); Comvita $3.38 (5c); eftpos provider Smartpay 72c (3.5c); SkyCity Entertainment $2.88 (2c). —