Market commentaries
WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares fell yesterday, led by Sky Network Television, Genesis Energy and Fletcher Building while Kathmandu Holdings and Synlait Milk gained.
The S/NZX 50 Index dropped 34.10 points, or 0.4%, to 8363.99. Within the index, 23 stocks dropped, 21 rose and six were unchanged. Turnover was $126 million.
David Price, a broker at Forsyth Barr, said some stocks were having large swings at the moment but with such low turnover, little could be read into the moves.
Sky TV was the worst performer, down 6% to $2.21.
Mr Price said the payTV provider’s new pricing options, which it introduced in February in an effort to slow an exodus of customers quitting in favour of cheaper ondemand rivals, will have customers looking at their bills and deciding whether to spin down — reduce their subscription features and how much they pay Sky.
‘‘One of two things will happen: we’ll hear nothing until August, and that will be a good sign. Or, we could get an update before then, because what happens is 90% of the people that spin down do it in the first six months.
‘‘We just don’t know, that’s the problem and that’s why the stock just wisheswashes around on quite a low volume,’’ Mr Price said.
Genesis Energy dropped 3.4% to $2.305, Fonterra fell 3.2% to $5.71, and Mainfreight declined 2.8% to $24.00.
Fletcher Building dropped 0.4% to $5.76, the lowest it has closed since March 2009.
Mr Price said there were concerns about the potential for the stock to fall out of the MSCI New Zealand Index at its next rebalancing, to be replaced by A2 Milk. A2 was unchanged at $12.92.
Kathmandu Holdings was the best performer, up 2.9% to $2.50.
Synlait Milk gained 1.5% to $9.08. It will spend about $18 million to double production of lactoferrin at its Dunsandel plant after securing a multiyear agreement to supply the highvalue milk protein to an unnamed customer.
Outside the benchmark index, Scott Technology gained 4.5% to $3.50. It boosted firsthalf profit 26% to $3.1 million.
A The Australian sharemarket closed higher yesterday as fears of an escalating ChinaUS trade war eased, at least for now, and Australia’s big four banks made gains.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index ended up 27.4 points, or 0.48%, at 5788.8 points and the All Ordinaries closed up 24.3 points, or 0.41%, at 5888 points. National turnover was 3 billion securities traded worth $A5.4 billion.
Comm Sec market analyst Steve Daghlian said the Australian market had made gains for two straight sessions after being close to sixmonth lows.
‘‘What’s been moving markets most recently is still the trade war concerns between the US and China — the story seems to be changing pretty much on a daily basis,’’ he said.
‘‘One day there are concerns of titfortat tariffs. Overnight we had both the representative for the White House, Larry Kudlow, and the Chinese ambassador both coming back saying they’re open to negotiating.’’
Gains from the big four banks outweighed losses among mining stocks on the local bourse yesterday.
ANZ ended the day up 1.0% at $26.81, Commonwealth Bank climbed 1.4% to $73.80, Westpac lifted 1.1% to $29.06, and National Australia Bank improved 1.3% to $28.87.
Following falls in the iron ore price, BHP Billiton fell 0.7% to $28.51, Rio Tinto slipped 1.2% to $73.30, and Fortescue Metals surrendered 3.2% to $4.22.
Dairy processor Murray Goulburn’s listed entity, the MG Unit Trust, was off A0.5c, or 0.5%, at A95c after Murray Goulburn shareholders voted in favour of a takeover by Canadian dairy giant Saputo. — Scoop/AAP