NZ shares fall as investors cash in August gains

New Zealand shares fell for a third session, taking their weekly decline to 2.3 per cent, as investors cashed in some of August’s gains in what was a strong month for the market. Tourism Holdings and a2 Milk Co declined.

The S&P/NZX 50 index decreased 6.21 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 9095.39. Within the index 20 stocks fell, 23 gained and seven were unchanged. Turnover was $122 million.

The benchmark index hit a record on August 29 and climbed 4.4 per cent in the month as investors were buoyed by a relatively upbeat corporate earnings season.

With global markets in a lull as traders await US President Donald Trump’s decision on whether to impose a wider array of tariffs on Chinese goods, local investors have used the chance to cash in some of those gains.

“We’ve had a lull over the last week from what’s been an all-time high,” said Shane Solly, a portfolio manager at Harbour Asset Management. “It’s still pretty good in the global scheme of things.”

Solly said the market was having a “healthy pullback” and had absorbed “a couple of capital raisings” with the Macquarie-managed funds selldown of Oceania Healthcare and shortfall bookbuild of Steel & Tube Holdings this week. Oceania was unchanged at $1.13 and Steel & Tube gained 2.5 per cent yesterday.

Tourism Holdings led the market lower, falling 4.3 per cent to $5.60, giving up Thursday’s gains when the rental campervan operator was the best performer on the bourse. Restaurant Brands New Zealand fell 2.2 per cent to $7.57, while a2 Milk declined 2.2 per cent to $11.62 and Kathmandu Holdings decreased 1.9 per cent to $3.10.

Sky Network Television dropped 1.9 per cent to $2.12 after it was removed from the S&P/ASX-300 index, effective September 24. Sky also shed rights to a dividend payment. Among other firms to shed dividend rights on Thursday, Air New Zealand fell 1.6 per cent to $3.16, Trade Me slipped 0.6 per cent to $4.93, Heartland Bank rose 0.6 per cent to $1.68, and Vector decreased 0.6 per cent to $3.42. Ryman Healthcare gained 3 per cent to $13.70, the biggest gain on the benchmark. Synlait Milk rose 2 per cent to $13 and NZX increased 0.9 per cent to $1.07.

Among blue-chip stocks, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 0.7 per cent to $14.90, Spark New Zealand increased 0.4 per cent to $3.90, and Auckland International Airport decreased 0.3 per cent to $6.86. Fletcher Building was unchanged at $6.20, as was Meridian Energy at $3.22.

Orion Health Group was unchanged at $1.08 after independent adviser KordaMentha recommended shareholders back a proposal to carve up the company and return capital through a share buyback.