Ryman bright spot as sharemarket slips
Ryman Healthcare sprang into life, gaining more than 4 per cent on heavy trading, while the New Zealand sharemarket had another down day. It was a topsy-turvy session for the S&P/NZX 50 Index, ranging from a high of 11,659.03 to a low of 11,602.97 before closing at 11,618.09, a decline of 34.07 points or 0.29 per cent. It was the sixth fall in seven days.
There were 90 decliners and 48 gainers over the whole market on volumes of 40.65 million share transactions worth $137.64m.
Leading retirement village operator Ryman Healthcare, rising 15c or 4.11 per cent to $3.80, dominated the trading with 7.5m shares worth $27.48m changing hands.
Ryman has fallen from $5.88 at the start of the year and has declined more than 30 per cent over the past 12 months.
Jeremy Sullivan, investment adviser with Hamilton Hindin Greene, said it was another day of treading water for the market.
“The volume in Ryman indicated wholesale trading related to the rebalancing of MSCI indices – with constituents being announced overnight in the United States,” he said.
Sullivan said the focus of investors is on the release of the US producer price and consumer price data over the next two days. The two reports could help clarify the outlook for interest rates and the timing for rate cuts.
At home, ANZ Research expects the Reserve Bank to leave the official cash rate (OCR) unchanged at 5.5 per cent next week, reiterating that “they remain in watch-worry-wait mode and interest rates need to remain at a restrictive level for a sustained period”.
ANZ said the data since the February monetary policy statement spoke to a slowing economy and sticky inflation, with the first quarter forecast miss on non-tradable inflation the fourth in a row and the biggest yet.
“The Reserve Bank could take a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full view of things. But overall, we think confirmation that the economy is cooling as the committee expects and requires will win the day.
“The data clearly signals a meaningful fall in domestic inflation ahead, with spare capacity steadily opening up.”
But ANZ said it expects the Reserve Bank won’t be in any hurry to signal imminent cuts to an impatient market.
ASB believes the OCR will not be lowered until next year. “Similarly, global market participants have pushed out the timings for rate cuts for the major central banks.”
The markets are still pricing in rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Australian Reserve Bank and Bank of England this year, though later than predicted a few months ago, ASB said.
Fletcher Building fell a further 15c or 4.73 per cent to $3.02 with several brokers reducing their target share price following the company’s earnings downgrade.
Infratil was down 23c or 2.18 per cent to $10.34; Freightways declined 19c or 2.29 per cent to $8.11; Sky TV shed 6c or 2.24 per cent to $2.62; Tourism Holdings decreased 5c or 2.56 per cent to $1.90; Hallenstein Glasson eased 15c or 2.75 per cent to $5.30; and PGG Wrightson was down 5c or 2.94 per cent to $1.65.
Meridian Energy, down 2c to $6.07, said national hydro storage declined from 102 per cent to 96 per cent in the month to May 8, while national electricity demand in April was 3.9 per cent higher than the same month last year and retail sales volumes increased 5.6 per cent.
In the property sector, Argosy fell 4c or 3.51 per cent to $1.10; Precinct was down 3c or 2.52 per cent to $1.16; Kiwi declined 1.5c or 1.83 per cent to 80.5c; Property for Industry shed 4c or 2.01 per cent to $2.19; and Stride eased 2c to $1.18.
Other decliners were Comvita down 4c or 2.29 per cent to $1.71; Serko decreasing 7c or 2.28 per cent to $3; Vista Group shedding 5c or 2.7 per cent to $1.80; Green Cross Health easing 2c or 1.98 per cent to 99c; ikeGPS falling 2c or 4.21 per cent to 45.5c; and AFT Pharmaceuticals down 12c or 4.41 per cent to $2.60.
Ebos Group increased 80c or 2.34 per cent to $35; Port of Tauranga improved 9c of 1.88 per cent to $4.89; South Port NZ was up 10c or 1.82 per cent to $5.60; KMD Brands gained 1.5c or 3.33 per cent to 46.5c; and Allied Farmers added 2c or 2.7 per cent to 76c.
Just Life Group increased 1.1c or 5.33 per cent to 21c after announcing a buy-back of 2.5m shares at 30c a share. Just Life is delisting from the NZX and transferring to the Unlisted Securities Exchange.