Stockmarket drifts lower on light trading

Auckland holiday and weakness in US dampen activity

With Auckland on holiday the New Zealand sharemarket drifted lower on the back of a weak end to the week in the United States, despite recovering late in the day on positive signs from Asia.

The NZX-50 briefly dropped below 13,000 just after midday, but eventually pared the loses to close down 30 points at 13,097.25, on a day of light trading and no significant company announcements.

Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners, said with little corporate news, the NZ market was driven by what was happening offshore, with Wall Street closing lower on Friday.

As well as frayed nerves in the US caused by volatile trading in companies such as GameStock, economic data out of China showed the rate of expansion in the manufacturing sector, while still positive, was slow.

US futures pointed higher, having been lower throughout the day, suggesting gains on Wall Street overnight.

Markets in Asia opened higher yesterday, dragging the NZ market higher. “The Asian markets have been pretty strong, they’ve dragged the Aussie market positive and [NZ] has improved throughout the day,” Hamilton Hindin Greene investment advisor Grant Davies said.

Digital donor management software company Pushpay was among the strongest gainers yesterday, climbing 7c or 4.2 per cent to $1.72.

Vista Group was also stronger, climbing 5c or 3.4 per cent to close at $1.54.

Retirement care company Ryman Healthcare was stronger throughout the session, closing up 16c at $15.72. Elsewhere in the sector, Arvida climbed 3.3 per cent to $1.85, Oceania gained 1c to close at $1.59, while Summerset fell 17c to close at $12.

Market leader Fisher & Paykel Healthcare dropped more than 3 per cent, closing at $33.51.

Restaurant Brands dropped 5c to $11.70. Forsyth Barr said while the company had shown robust sales growth in the fourth quarter of 2020, lower future growth expectations meant analysts were trimming their target price on the owner of KFC and Pizza Hutt owner to $12.75.

Shares in honey exporter Comvita were unchanged at $3.20 despite Jarden raising its target price.

As part of a wider review of the NZ agriculture sector, Jarden raised its target price for Comvita by 35c to $3.35, on the back of strong export data showing large increases to both China and the US.

Skellerup, whose target price was raised by Jarden, fell 5c to $3.84.

Infrastructure investor Infratil climbed 23c or 3.2 per cent to $7.43, making up much of the 6 per cent the shares dropped on Friday, as investors await news of possible takeover moves from across the Tasman.

Air New Zealand rose 4c to $1.63.

Contact was the top performer in the electricity sector, closing up 3.4 per cent at $8.45. Meridian rose 3c to $7.18, Mercury slid 3c to $7.09.5, Genesis Energy fell 4c to $3.88 and Trustpower held at $3.88.

Water cooler company Just Life Group dropped 5c to $1.03, as investors took gains after the company’s shares hit the highest level in a decade last week, while Smartpay ended down 3.7 per cent at 92.5c.