Market commentary

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. —