Market commentaries

WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares fell yesterday on global trade concerns after US President Donald Trump announced new trade barriers.

Synlait Milk gave up gains while Fletcher Building rebounded on debt waiver news.

The S/NZX50 Index dropped 54.29 points, or 0.7%, to 8288.42. Within the index, 30 stocks dropped, 12 rose and eight were unchanged. Turnover was $132 million.

Equity markets weakened overnight, led from the US where the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.7% after Mr Trump stoked fears of a trade war when he said the US would impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports next week.

Asian stock markets followed suit. Japan’s Nikkei 400 was down 2.2% at 5:05pm NZ time, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng had declined 1.5% and the S/ASX 200 had fallen 1%.

‘‘Obviously, we had some pretty major leads from the US overnight, so our market is doing fairly well in comparison,’’ Grant Davies, investment adviser at Hamilton Hindin Greene, said. ‘‘All in all, it is a reasonably subdued day.’’

Fisher Paykel Healthcare, which derives about half its revenue in US dollars, fell 3.1% to $13.33. Steel products maker Steel Tube fell 1.4% to $2.06.

Synlait Milk led the index lower, down 3.2% to $7.53, though the stock is still up 12% this week.

Sky Network Television continued to weaken following its result earlier in the week, down 2.4% to $2.40 for a weekly fall of 14%.

The best performer was Fletcher Building, up 2.3% to $6.58. The stock has plunged 32% in the past 12 months and 15% this year, driven by multiple downgrades.

‘‘It’s a little bit of a bounce. I’m sure longsuffering investors will be pleased to see that,’’ Mr Davies said.

Outside the benchmark index, Energy Mad’s shares surged to 1.7c from the 0.2c they last traded at on February 22. It plans to carry out a reverse listing with PaySauce.

Australian shares closed sharply lower yesterday after US President Donald Trump’s surprise tariffs announcement.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index ended down 44.4 points, or 0.74%, at 5928.9 points. All sectors were in the red, led by losses in resources and industrial stocks. The All Ordinaries index was down 47.3 points, or 0.78%, at 6028.4 points. National turnover was 2.97 billion securities traded worth $A6.1 billion.

Mr Trump announced tariffs on steel and

d after meeting with US industry officials, saying American steel and aluminium industries had been treated unfairly by other countries for decades.

He said he would sign off the tariffs — 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium — next week. Wall Street dropped sharply.

Phillip Capital senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said while investors should not overreact and ‘‘take a cold shower’’ when a statement from the US president moved markets, the talk of tariffs sparked weakness in regional markets and the local resources sector.

‘‘There is absolutely no fundamental problem with our market,’’ Mr Heffernan said.

‘‘Just as [US Federal Reserve chairman] Jerome Powell said: ‘The sharemarket is not the economy.’ Its volatility doesn’t affect the underlying economics of America — or Australia, which are going great guns.’’ — Scoop/ AAP

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