Otago Daily Times

Market commentary

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WELLINGTON: After a pretty hectic, and at times volatile, year, the New Zealand sharemarke­t went into a slumber with very few significan­t price movements across the board.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index slipped for the second day running, falling 67.95 points or 0.53% to 12,767.17. The index has now fallen 1.18% in two days. Is a mini correction taking place?

There were 45 gainers and 88 decliners over the whole market with volume reaching 80 million shares worth $222.22 million in a late surge of trading, which prompted some turnaround in prices, particular­ly Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, Meridian Energy, Ebos, and Briscoe Group.

Greg Smith, head of research with Fat Prophets, said the market was looking a little tired.

The latest GDP figures are expected to show growth in the national economy of 11%13% for the three months ending September compared with the June quarter — spurred by the hot housing market and increased consumer spending.

The NZ dollar fell slightly, trading in a range of 70.69c70.93c against the American greenback.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare staged a rebound during the day, rising to $32.50 but it was hit by the late fall on the market and finished at $32.06, down 1c on trade worth $32.5 million. The other market leader a2 Milk was up 14c to $14.20 on trade worth $13.5 million.

After a strong rise the day before, Contact Energy went the other way, falling 27c or 3.26% to $8.02; Chorus was down 12c to $7.68; Ebos Group lost 49c to $26.15; Synlait decreased 15c or 2.68% to $5.45; new listing Harmoney declined 11c or 3.67% to $2.89; and Infratil was down 8c to $7.10.

After making strong moves during the day, Meridian finally closed with a gain of 7c to $6.60 and bulk retailer Briscoe finished at $5.07, up 12c or 2.42%.

Kiwifruit grower and packer Seeka said the $A26.5 million ($28.13 million) sale and leaseback of its Australian orchards, totalling 100ha, was now completed and its share price rose 10c or 2.35% to $4.35.

Pushpay Holdings went into a trading halt while its cofounder Chris Heaslip and executive director Chris Fowler sell a total of 54.6 million shares, reducing their holdings from 4% to 0.2%, and 2.4% to 1.2% respective­ly. Argosy Property has settled its insurance claim with NZI and QBE in relation to the Kaikoura earthquake for $23.5 million, and its share price moved 1.5c to $1.56. —

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