Trade barrier news casts shadow over index

New Zealand shares fell on global trade concerns after US President Donald Trump announced new trade barriers, with Synlait Milk giving up gains while Fletcher Building rebounded on debt waiver news.

The S&P/NZX50 index dropped 54.29 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 8288.42. Within the index, 30 stocks dropped, 12 rose and eight were unchanged. Turnover was $132 million.

Equity markets weakened overnight on Thursday, led from the US where the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.7 per cent after Trump stoked fears of a trade war when he said the US will impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports next week. Asian stock markets followed suit.

“We had some pretty major leads from the US, so our market is doing fairly well in comparison,” said Grant Davies, investment adviser at Hamilton Hindin Greene. “All in all it was a reasonably subdued day.”

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, which derives about half its revenue in US dollars, fell 3.1 per cent to $13.33. Steel products maker Steel & Tube fell 1.4 per cent to $2.06.

Synlait Milk led the index lower, down 3.2 per cent to $7.53, though the stock is still up 12 per cent this week after jumping 10 per cent on Wednesday. Davies said Synlait, along with a2 Milk Co, which yesterday dipped 0.7 per cent to $13, was giving a little bit back from its recent gains.

Sky Network Television continued to weaken following its result earlier in the week, down 2.4 per cent to $2.40 for a weekly fall of 14 per cent.

The best performer of the day was Fletcher Building, up 2.3 per cent to $6.58. After trading closed on Thursday, the company announced it has been granted a debt waiver by its US private placement noteholders, and is “now discussing with both its bank syndicate and USPP noteholders amendments to the terms of its funding arrangements”.

The stock has plunged 32 per cent in the past 12 months and 15 per cent this year, driven by multiple downgrades.

“It’s a little bit of a bounce. I’m sure longsuffering investors will be pleased . . . though it is just until March 31,” Davies said.

Outside the benchmark index, Energy Mad’s shares surged to 1.7c from the 0.2c they last traded at on February 22. It plans to carry out a reverse listing with PaySauce, handing over outstanding debt to the new firm and giving shareholders a stake in a cloud-based, software-as-a-service payroll solution company.

The value of the shares in PaySauce is about $10m and the market capitalisation of Energy Mad is about $310,000. As a result, Energy Mad shareholders will own 3 per cent of the new entity and current PaySauce shareholders 97 per cent.

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