Market commentaries

WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares yesterday dropped from Wednesday’s record, led lower by Sky Network Television and NZX. Vector and Chorus gained.

The S&P/NZX50 Index fell 22.79 points, or 0.2%, to 9339.88. Within the index, 30 stocks fell, 13 rose and seven were unchanged. Turnover was $129.55 million.

‘‘The market is up 3.5% for the month, which is a huge move. It has been driven by the growth stocks and we are seeing a lot of buying coming from offshore,’’ Forsyth Barr broker David Price said. ‘‘Given the magnitude of the move yesterday, to be pretty largely flat on the day is a pretty good performance.’’

Sky Network Television was the worst performer, down 4.2% at $2.30. Last Friday, the payTV operator wrote down its value by $360 million at the end of its financial year, resulting in a $240.7 million annual loss.

NZX dropped 3.2%, or 3.5c, to $1.07 as it gave up rights to a 3c interim dividend and 1.5c special dividend.

Tourism Holdings fell 3.2% to $5.81. It reported a record Juneyear net profit of $62.4 million on Tuesday, of which $23.1 million was an accounting gain on setting up its TH2 joint venture with RV maker Thor Industries.

Vector was the best performer, up 1.8% at $3.48. It has agreed to buy Vircom Energy Management Services to help maintain a national service for residential and commercial smart meters.

Chorus rose 1.4% to $4.62 and Fonterra Shareholders Fund gained 1.2% to $5.04.

Outside the benchmark index, Veritas Investments rose 33.3% to 12c.

Wellington Drive Technology was unchanged at 18.1c.

A The Australian share market closed flat yesterday, falling back from a new postGFC intraday high after a late slump in banking stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index ended 0.4 points, or 0.01%, lower at 6351.8 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index was up 3.5 points, or 0.05%, at 6460.5 points.

CMC Markets chief strategist Michael McCarthy said a positive local reporting season, where companies had shown an average 12% earnings growth, had been a boost for the ASX.

The telco sector gained strongly after the announcement Vodafone Australia and TPG Telecom will merge into a single $A15 billion ($NZ16.4 billion) telecommunications giant.

James McGlew, executive director of corporate stockbroking at Argonaut, said the deal was likely to ease competition with rivals such as Telstra and Optus.

Telstra shares were 2.9% higher at $3.23, while TPG ended the day up 18.2% at $9.31.

Commonwealth Bank led losses for the big four banks, down 1.5% at $72.15, while ANZ was down 0.1% at $29.39, NAB fell 0.6% to $28.30 and Westpac was down 0.8% at $28.65.

Australia’s largest private hospital operator, Ramsay Health Care, reported a 20.6% fall in fullyear profit after recording about $150 million of writedowns and restructuring costs. Ramsay shares closed 6.3% lower at $54.48.

But another positive day for CSL, one of the largest companies on the ASX, helped lift the healthcare sector to positive territory.

CSL’s shares gained 1.3% to $226.30.