Market commentary

AUCKLAND: The two biggest stocks, Meridian and Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, provided support to the New Zealand sharemarket while Wall Street tumbled on the latest round of interest rate hikes. Meridian Energy was up 7c to $5.02 and Fisher and Paykel Healthcare increased 29c to $19.56 as the S&P/NZX 50 Index gained 19.37 points, or 0.17%, to 11,518.32 after reaching an intraday low of 11,501.34. With the Australian market closed because of the Queen's Memorial public holiday, trading was very light. Only 16.61 million shares worth $56.5 million changed hands, and there were 48 gainers and 78 decliners on the main board. The United States Federal Reserve's third successive 75 basis points hike lifted its official rate to a range of 33.25%. . Initially, the leading US indices were up, but in a volatile session they finished sharply down on the realisation that it will take longer to tame inflation and the Fed will remain aggressive. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.7% to 30,183.78 points (down 16.94% so far this year); the S&P 500 slipped 1.71% to 3789.93 (down 20.48% this year); and the Nasdaq Composite shed 1.79% to 11,220.19 (down 28.28% this year). The NZ dollar slid again, trading at US58.27c against the American greenback, and is now at a 26month low. Spark gained 5c to $5.21; a2 Milk increased 9c to $6.28; Contact Energy improved 5c to $7.84; Genesis was up 5.4c or 1.87% to $2.945; Pushpay Holdings rose 3c or 2.73% to $1.13; and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels added 4c or 1.95% to $2.09. Air New Zealand was up 1c to 74c after reporting a significant increase in passengers carried — 1.09 million in August compared with 503,000 in the same month last year and just shy of the 1.29 million in August 2018. Goodman Property Trust, up 1c to $2.25, is developing four new facilities for existing customers Mainfreight and Cotton On with net lettable space of 50,000sq m and a total project cost of $221.4m. Goodman now has a development pipeline worth $635.7m. Freightways fell 54c or 5.09% to $10.06 after having a late gain the day before; Mainfreight was down $1 to $70; Mercury Energy declined 9.5c to $6; and Vector shed 4c to $4.27. Fonterra Shareholders' Fund declined 3c to $3.40 after the dairy cooperative reported an 11% increase in revenue to $23.42 billion and net profit of $583m, down 3%, for the year ending July. Milk collection was down 4% to 1.478 kgMS. The final 202122 farmgate milk price of $9.30 per kgMS and a total dividend of 20c a share meant farmers will receive a payout of $9.50 a kg. —