Index reaches end of a torrid week 4pc down

The New Zealand sharemarket took a well-earned breather after two weeks of incredible volatility — and changes in the MSCI indices affected three stocks.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index again had its ups and downs during the day but finished reasonably flat, closing at 11,168.18 — down 9.18 points or 0.08 per cent. The index was down nearly 4 per cent for the week.

There were 60 gainers and 76 decliners across the whole market on volume of 42.7 million share transactions worth $146.91 million. Individual trading was dominated by Ryman Healthcare and Ebos Group.

Ryman Healthcare, gaining 14c to $9.39 on trade worth $11.86m, is being removed from the MSCI Large Cap Index at the end of this month following its semi-annual review.

There could be more than $26m worth of Ryman shares traded before May 31 as passive investment funds continue to offload their holdings.

It was thought that Ebos Group could replace Ryman in the global index but it didn’t quite meet the criteria and Ebos was sold off — falling 98c or 2.39 per cent to $39.99 on trade worth $15.52m.

The New Zealand market now has only five stocks in the MSCI index: Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, up 70c or 3.44 per cent to $21.05; Spark, gaining 6.5c to $4.90; Auckland International Airport increasing 20c or 2.82 per cent to $7.30; Meridian down 14c or 3.04 per cent to $4.47; and Mercury rising 1c to $5.65.

The Warehouse Group is joining the MSCI Small Cap Index and rose 24c or 7.62 per cent to $3.39.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said the local market had a day of reflection after all the macroeconomic volatility.

“The US markets rallied into the close of trading and long-term bond yields stopped going up and this helped steady our market. What the markets are battling with is whether the central banks can control or get on top of inflation, or does it mean an economic recession?”

The Australian S&P/ASX 200 Index made a strong rebound, rising 1.82 per cent to 7067.1 points at 6pm NZ time, and cloud accounting firm Xero was up 8.8 per cent to A$83.67 ($92.22). Xero reported an annual loss of $9.11m the day before — a turnaround from a net profit of $19.77m.

Solly said the local market will be closely watching an action-packed week of company results, with Manawa Energy going first on Monday followed by Argosy Property (down 3c or 2.42 per cent to $1.21), Investore (down 6c or 3.85 per cent to $1.50) and Serko (up 6c to $4.80) on Wednesday.