Stockmarket drops amid light trading
Westpac and Tegel among worst performers but broker emphasises falls were on ‘pretty low’ volumes Kiwi hits US72c
New Zealand shares fell, with volumes still low. Westpac Banking Corp, A2 Milk Co and Tegel Group Holdings all dropped though New Zealand Refining Co gained.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index dipped 3.68 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 7059.28. Within the index, 26 stocks fell, 17 rose and seven were unchanged. Turnover was $103.3 million.
“There were some mildly negative leads overnight, mainly from Europe,” said James Smalley, a director at stockbroker Hamilton Hindin Greene. “Asia’s pretty mixed, it’s down but not massive amounts. It’s pretty quiet volumes-wise at the moment, even the stocks that have fallen the most have pretty low volumes.”
Westpac Banking Corp
led the index lower, down 1.8 per cent to $33.80, while fell 1.5 per cent to $1.36. The poultry producer listed at $1.55 in May last year. dropped 1.7 per cent to $2.27.
Tegel Group Holdings A2 Milk Co New Zealand Refining Co
was the best performer, up 1.9 per cent to $2.75. The oil refinery operator said its annual throughput hit record levels in 2016 and its fee income for the year was the third largest earned by the company in the past 10 years.
“It’s a very good announcement, particularly on margins,” Smalley said.
Air New Zealand Ryman Healthcare Chorus Xero Fund
rose 1.6 per cent gained rose to $2.24, 1.5 per cent to $8.40, and 1.2 per cent to $4.11.
fell 1 per cent to $18.32. The cloud-based accounting software company says it is still considering whether chairman Chris Liddell’s position is compatible with his new role as a White House adviser in the Trump administration and will update the market when a decision is made. Units in
gained 0.6 per cent to $6.25 — the highest level since November 2014. Dairy product prices inched
Fonterra Shareholders’
higher at the Global Dairy Trade auction overnight. Whole milk powder slipped 0.1 per cent, while butter rose 1.6 per cent.
gained 0.5 per cent to $2.91,
Infratil
a three-month high. “It’s bounced about 11.5 per cent since December when it hit almost 2-and-a-half-year lows,” Smalley said.
“There may be a bit of bargain hunting there, a lot of its investments are doing pretty well — it’s got some solid businesses generating some significant cashflows. That selldown came after they made an investment into renewable energy in the States, probably not a great time given who won the US election and his theory on climate change.”
Outside the main index, dropped 4.7 per cent to $1.62. The shares dropped sharply in December, triggering a price enquiry from stockmarket operator NZX, but recovered in early January before the company gave a third-quarter trading update last Wednesday.
“It’s one of those stocks you’ve got to be quite patient with. You’ve had the selldown, the bounce back, and maybe what we’ve seen is some of the luckier investors who did buy down around those $1.30, $1.40 levels, they’ve been exiting at $1.80 and that’s what pushing the stock down to where it is now,” Smalley said. “
Pushpay
The New Zealand dollar rose above US72 cents its highest level since midDecember, as investors in the United States moved to unwind trades based on the anticipated inflationary policies of President-elect Donald Trump. The kiwi was trading at US72.04c at 5pm yesterday, up from US71.14c on Tuesday. It rose as high as US72.15c mid-morning. The kiwi fell to 58.33 British pence from 59p on Tuesday after Theresa May’s speech but gained against its transtasman counterpart, rising to A95.36c from A95.07c.