NZX recovers from politics jitters
The stockmarket has bounced back from a small knock yesterday morning that followed National losing power.
After initially dropping 1 per cent, the NZX 50 index climbed back into positive territory during afternoon trading yesterday, and was up 0.1 per cent at 8132 shortly after 3pm.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which should benefit from a weaker dollar, jumped 3.4 per cent.
That was enough for it to leapfrog Meridian Energy and Auckland Airport to regain the top spot on the NZX that it first took last week.
However, retirement village operators and electricity companies were continuing to feel the fallout from NZ First’s decision to go into government with Labour.
Investor sentiment was ‘‘mildly negative’’ yesterday but it was not a case of panic stations, Hamilton Hindin Greene investment adviser Grant Davies said.
Even at its peak, the fall in the value of shares had only taken the market back to where it was trading about 10 days ago, he noted.
Shares in retirement village operator Ryman Healthcare had not recovered and were 3.4 per cent lower at $9.25 in mid-afternoon trading.
But Synlait Milk shares bounced back after falling 2.3 per cent to $7.62 in morning trading, cutting their loss to just 0.4 per cent.
Shares in Meridian Energy remained down 1.4 per cent.
Davies said the appetite for shares in retirement village companies tended to reflect changed expectations for the property market and also expectations with regard to the minimum wage.
Synlait could have fallen because of generalised concerns about the impact of the change of government on the dairy sector. But the company could benefit from a depreciation in the New Zealand dollar, he said.
The kiwi dipped below A90 cents for the first time in nearly two years on Thursday, following NZ First’s announcement.
It also slipped below US70c yesterday afternoon, having fallen by US1.8c from its peak on Thursday, and was at a yearlow just above €0.59.
It remained above its year-low of US68.3c against the greenback.