Market commentary
WELLINGTON: Investors stepped back to digest a flow of economic data as the New Zealand sharemarket fell 0.5% after two days of rises.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index was down 63.88 points, or 0.49%, to 12,848.31 in rocky trading, after hitting an intraday low of 12,759.14 and high of 12,912.19.
There were 61 gainers and 70 decliners, and 61.7 million shares worth $232.49 million were traded.
The unemployment rate fell from 4.9% to 4.7% in the March quarter.
The Reserve Bank said it was ready to implement more tools to cool the housing market if needed, and Barfoot and Thompson said yearonyear house prices in Auckland increased 15% but there was now a slower rate of growth in prices, at 0.2% per month.
The United States Treasury Secretary said interest rates might have to rise, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.88%.
Harbour Asset Management portfolio manager Shane Solly said there was a lot of data to absorb.
‘‘Investors were a little bit cautious and stepped back to read and understand the information flow.
‘‘There are concerns that longterm bond yields may creep up, and our market featured a weakness in a number of bigcap stocks after recently having a good run,’’ he said.
Market leader Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 99c to $34.55, Ebos Group was down 42c to $30.50 and Summerset Group Holdings decreased 18c to $12.32.
The interest ratesensitive energy stocks had mixed days. Contact fell 13c to $7.65, Mercury lost 12c to $6.97 and Trustpower shed 8c to $8.60. Genesis continued to climb, rising 4c to $3.51, and Meridian was up 2c to $5.52.
Other decliners were Serko, down 15c to $6.75, and VITAL, which fell 2c, to 79c.
Telecommunications services provider VITAL announced a sales channel with partner Logic Wireless, one of the largest distributors of land mobile radio and rugged cellular devices in New Zealand and Australia. Logic will connect wholesale digital radio services through its New Zealand dealer network.
Synlait Milk rose 9c to $3.48, Freightways was up 10c to $11.25, Restaurant Brands climbed 55c to $13.95 and The Warehouse Group gained 9c to $3.50.
Other gainers were Fletcher Building, up 4c to $7.41, Infratil, which gained 5c to $7.32 and Vista Group, which increased 5c to $2.50.
Duallisted ANZ Banking Group fell 81c to $30.32 after reporting sixmonth statutory profit of $A2.9 billion ($NZ3.2 billion), up 45% on the second half of the 2020 financial year. The group doubled its interim dividend to A70c a share.
Duallisted AFT Pharmaceuticals, which rose 10c to $4.80, continues to announce distribution deals — this time in Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia and Uruguay for Maxigesic.
Another duallisted stock, ikeGPS, told the market it had extended an agreement with a Fortune 100 US electric utility to design its power distribution infrastructure for additional $1.2 million revenue in its 2022 financial year. Its shares rose 3c to 98c. —