Market commentary
WELLINGTON: Inflation and interest rates are still under control, but that did not fire up the New Zealand sharemarket which yesterday had its sharpest fall in a month, with the largecap stocks most hit.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 143.21 points or 1.13% to 12,535.34.
The previous biggest oneday fall of 1.49% occurred on March 22.
There were only 43 gainers and 90 decliners on steady volume of 37.78 million share transactions worth $164.7 million.
The first quarter consumer prices index rose 0.8%, below the Reserve Bank’s forecast of 1%, and inflation is running at 1.5% annually.
After a record last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Index fell 256 points or 0.75% to 33,821.30; the S&P 500 Index was down 0.68% to 4134.94; and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.92% to 13,786.27, as concerns about rising Covid cases globally offset healthy United States corporate earnings reports for the first quarter.
The Australian S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 0.45% to 6986.50 at 5.45pm.
Among the largecap stocks, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 50c to $33; a2 Milk was down 31c or 3.6% to $8.31; Ebos Group shed 98c or 3.15% to $30.10; Auckland International Airport declined 18.5c or 2.4 to $7.51; Spark decreased 6c to $4.42; and Pushpay Holdings fell 5c or 2.62% to $1.86.
Ryman Healthcare fell 50c or 3.42% to $14.14, and Summerset Group Holdings was down 24c or 1.98% to $11.86.
Freightways decreased 14c to $11.24; Air New Zealand declined 2c to $1.74; Serko dipped 11c to $6.84; and Sanford fell 7c to $4.63.
Among the energy stocks, Meridian fell 13c or 2.26% to $5.562, and Mercury declined 8.5c to $6.58.
Mercury reported that hydro inflows during the third quarter ending March were 1636GWh below average, causing storage to decline 1914GWh (1181GWh below average).
Hydro generation increased 71GWh to 910GWh, compared with the previous corresponding period, as Mercury responded to high spot prices.
The financial services sector also dipped. ANZ Banking Group fell 71c or 2.29% to $30.33, Westpac Banking Corporation declined 63c or 2.31% to $26.65, and AMP was down 5c or 3.58% to $1.25.
Among the few gainers, Port of Tauranga rose 10c to $7.46, Chorus gained 6c to $6.53, Seeka increased 10c or 1.94% to $5.25 and Allied Farmers was up 4c or 7.69% to 56c.
Kiwi Property gained 1c to $1.245. Fellow property company Argosy increased 5c to $1.52.
Transport technology firm Eroad surged 47c or 9.25% to $5.55 after providing an upbeat report for the three months ending March. Its sales included 1054 Dashcam units in United States in March, after beginning marketing and selling of the new product the same month.
It reaffirmed its earlier 2021 and 2022 earnings forecasts.
Just Life Group has bought 60% of Designer Tanks.
Just Life’s share price gained 1c to 88c. — The
New Zealand Herald