Ryman the star as index goes into reverse
The volatile New Zealand sharemarket gave up all the strong gains of the day before to close the week down more than 1 per cent, with blue-chip stocks being hit. The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell sharply after the Asian markets opened and traded softly, and finished at 12,594.52, down 134.32 points or 1.06 per cent.
During the morning the local index reached a high of 12,752, but it was all downhill from lunchtime.
There were 55 gainers and 85 decliners over the whole market on volume of 2832 million share transactions worth $122.42m.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 2.31 per cent; the Japan Nikkei 225 declined 1.81 per cent; and the Shanghai Composite had shed 0.94 per cent at 5.45pm NZ time.
Dan Stratful, investment adviser with Forsyth Barr, said the local market was trading relatively well and then fell quite aggressively on the opening of the Asian markets.
“We are still getting caught up in the Chinese government regulation moves, with their education and technology stocks being hit. This has affected a2 Milk, providing more uncertainty for them. And there’s fear that other local companies may get caught up in the crosshairs of the China regulation,” Stratful said.
The local star performer for the second day running was leading retirement village operator Ryman Healthcare, up 23c or 1.78 per cent to $13.18 after reporting record quarterly sales. It has risen nearly 6 per cent in two days.
Summerset Group Holdings was down 13c to $12.90; Arvida declined 6c or 2.83 per cent to $2.06; and Oceania Healthcare fell
4c or 2.61 per cent to $1.49.
Transport and logistics operator Mainfreight reached an intraday high of $84.95 after reminding shareholders at its annual meeting that the company has had 11 consecutive years of record results, with global sales now at $3.5 billion or $68m a week. But Mainfreight fell in concert with the market, finishing down $1 to $82.
Fletcher Building rose 8c to $7.64, fuelled by a broker upgrade from neutral to buy. Stratful said there was plenty of work for builders, cyclicals perform well early in an economic recovery, and “I think Fletcher is heading towards $8 later this year.”
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 61c or
1.9 per cent to $31.55; Freightways slipped
14c to $12.80; Ebos Group shed 58c or 1.84 per cent to $31.02; Pushpay Holdings declined 4c or 2.3 per cent to $1.70; Infratil decreased 9c to $7.31; a2 Milk was down 30c or 4.6 per cent to $6.22; and Synlait Milk was down 3c to $3.73.