Lockdown-affected stocks continue to wobble

The New Zealand sharemarket finished a nervous week almost where it started — with investors sidetracked by the latest government pronouncements on the Covid-19 resurgence in the community and its implications.

The S&P/NZX 500 Index slipped 48.68 points or 0.42 per cent, to 11,452.14 and was down 31 points for the whole week. The influential United States markets were also down.

Things went flat here when the country went into level 3 (Auckland) and level 2 (the rest) on Wednesday night, since extended for another 12 days.

There was late trading on the index, particularly in Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, with a total of 54.37 million shares worth $197.83m changing hands, ending with 62 gainers and 80 decliners over the whole market.

“The market is very much in a holding pattern and people were biding their time to see what comes out of the 5.30pm [Covid restrictions] announcement,” said David Price, director institutional equities at Forsyth Barr. “During the week the market has bobbled along with relatively small movements, marking time for tonight’s and next week’s corporate results.”

Stocks more closely connected to the impacts of Covid continued to wobble.

SkyCity was down 4c to $2.36, Tourism Holdings fell 3c to $1.71, and Air New Zealand lost 2c to $1.305.

Auckland International Airport slipped 10c to $6.20 after revealing the impact of Covid-19 on passenger flows through its terminals. Total passenger volumes slumped 84.9 per cent in June and 70.8 per cent in July compared with the same months last year. International and transit passengers fell about 97 per cent and 95 per cent in both months, while domestic passengers improved in July, being down 39.2 per cent compared with 70.9 per cent in June.

The market heavyweights had contrasting days. Fisher and Paykel Healthcare fell 4c to $34.30 on a whopping $47.6m worth of trades, and a2 Milk increased 18c to $20.95 with $5.3m worth of its shares changing hands.

Technology firm ikeGPS completed its $20m capital raise by attracting $4.1m from retail shareholders who took up 66 per cent of their one-for-seven entitlements. The share price rose 2c to 94c.

Wall Street had a patchy day even though market leaders Apple increased 8c to US$460.04 and Tesla climbed 66.24c, or

4.26 per cent, to $US1621. The Dow Jones Industrial Index was down 80.12 points to

27,896.72.

Safe haven gold stayed under the US$2000 an ounce mark at $1953 an oz.