Market commentary

WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares fell for a third day as investors attempted to price the risk posed by coronavirus. Tourismrelated companies, including Tourism Holdings and Air New Zealand, led the market down.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index declined 122.03 points, or 1%, to 11,685.11. Within the index, 35 stocks fell, 10 rose, and five were unchanged. Turnover was $117.8 million. Trading bounced back as investors returned from holidays.

Grant Davies, an investment adviser at Hamilton Hindin Greene, said the NZX was following a negative lead from global markets as fears surrounding coronavirus increase.

‘‘When global markets get the jitters, New Zealand is never going to be immune to that,’’ he said.

‘‘It is not a reflection on the companies per se, but it’s more a reflection on global growth expectations being pared back as investors try to account for the risk of a slowdown.’’

Markets across Asia were down. Japan’s TOPIX fell 0.8%, Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 2.5% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.5%.

Travelrelated stocks, including airlines, casinos and hotels, were the worsthit on Wall Street. New Zealand followed this trend and stocks with exposure to the Chinese tourism market all fell.

Tourism Holdings fell 4.8% to $2.80 on a volume of 1.2 million, despite chief executive Grant Webster saying the company has yet to feel any impact of the coronavirus at the operational level.

Stephen Innes, chief market strategist at AxiCorp, said traders are ‘‘flying blind’’ as the extent of the damage from the new coronavirus is still unknown,

‘‘Given what’s known at this stage amid China’s massive and continuous contribution to the worldwide economy — the direction of travel in growth proxies makes sense,’’ he said.

Other tourismrelated shares have also suffered from coronavirus jitters. Air New Zealand shed 1.6% to $2.865 on a volume of 2.5 million shares, Auckland International Airport dropped 2.3% to $8.55 on a volume of 1.1 million shares and SkyCity Entertainment Group fell 3.2% to $3.90 on a volume of 1.4 million shares.

Air New Zealand said it carried 1.8 million passengers in December, up 3.2% from a year earlier. Of those, 118,000 came from Asia, Japan and Singapore, up 24% on the year.

Yesterday, the company also announced it has amended the definition of its $350 million to $450 million earnings guidance to make it clear several significant items are not included, as it looks down the barrel of a hit to fullyear earnings of as much as $50 million due to accounting changes and restructuring costs.

A2 Milk fell 1.6% to $15.47 on a volume of 530,000 shares. Davies said while some movement was not unusual for the stock, fears of a downturn in its key consumer market in China may be affecting the share price.

The biggest decliners were outside the tourism sector. Mainfreight fell 4.7% to $41 on just 44,000 shares and Oceania Healthcare dropped 3.1% to $1.25 on 930,000 shares.

Among the few stocks that gained ground were Argosy Property, which rose 0.7% to $1.44 on a volume of 616,000 shares, Goodman Property Trust which rose 0.7% to $2.32 on a volume of 1.2 million shares and Investore Property which rose 0.6% to $1.82.

Kiwi Property Group fell 0.6% to $1.56 on 789,000 shares, and Precinct Properties fell 0.5% to $1.88 on 1.3 million shares.

Metlifecare fell 0.2% to $6.88. — BusinessDesk