No relief as day delivers another fall in index

There was no respite for the New Zealand sharemarket, which closed the week down another percentage point and is having its worst January in 14 years. The S&P/NZX 50 Index’s trading graph line was very familiar. The index fell steadily all day and finished at 12,348, dropping 149.09 points or 1.19 per cent.

The index has fallen nearly 3.5 per cent this week, 5.35 per cent for the month — and is dipping towards January 2008 when the index was down 9.2 per cent. The market lost 6.9 per cent in February last year.

There were 96 decliners and 43 gainers across the market yesterday and trading improved with 38.64 million shares worth $172.11 million changing hands. Trading was boosted by the sale of 7.09 million Meridian shares worth $32.93m. Meridian ended the day down by 1c to $4.64.

Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said there was no rhyme or reason for some of the individual falls. “No-one is home on the buy side, and it was another day of relative broad-based selling on low volumes.” He said the real change was that markets are realising central banks have to take away the punchbowl and tighten monetary policy to combat inflation.

The local market followed Australia down, with the S&P/ASX 200 Index having fallen 2.3 per cent to 7173.5 points at 5.45pm NZ time, and Wall Street was again weak and rattled overnight.

At home, market leader Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down $1.05 or 3.45 per cent to $29.35; EBOS Group declined 95c or 2.43 per cent to $38.15; Mainfreight shed 47c to $87.13; and a2 Milk, which had been steady so far this year, tumbled 24c or 4.2 per cent to $5.48.

The retirement village operators were mixed. Ryman Healthcare gained 8c to $11.16, Summerset Group Holdings was up

7c to $12.50; Arvida Group decreased 4c or

2.16 per cent to $1.81; and Oceania Healthcare fell 4c or 3.23 per cent to $1.20.

Infratil was down 23c or 2.86 per cent to $7.82; Tourism Holdings declined 8c or

2.83 per cent to $2.75; Rakon fell another 4c or 2.21 per cent to $1.77; Pacific Edge decreased 5c or 3.94 per cent to $1.22; and Heartland Group Holdings was down 9c or 3.59 per cent to $2.42.

Napier Port fell 7c or 2.36 per cent to near its listing price at $2.89, but new listing

Ventia Services Group picked up 9c or 3.81 per cent to $2.45, and another newcomer,

Winton Land, was up 6c to $3.79.

Sky Network Television increased 5c or 2.06 per cent to $2.48; Move Logistics collected 5c or 3.13 per cent to $1.65; and NZME gained 3c or 2.5 per cent to $1.23.