‘Listless and almost asleep’: NZ’s market waits for US jobs data

New Zealand’s market was quiet like the ocean before a storm today as investors wait for looming US jobs data out tomorrow.

Thursday, March 9th 2023, 6:04PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index edged down by 29.4 points, or 0.25%, to 11,826.15. Turnover was $108.3 million.

Peter McIntyre, an investment advisor at Craigs Investment Partners, said the local market had been listless and sleepy today as a result of little corporate news and investors worrying about US jobs data out tomorrow.

US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell stirred up market anxieties yesterday after revealing that the process of getting inflation back under control had a “long way to go” and was likely to be “bumpy”.

Powell also said the latest economic data had come in stronger than expected and McIntyre told BusinessDesk that all eyes would be on the US jobs report data coming out tomorrow.

“The market is trying to digest all this and make sense of it, but at the moment it's probably not doing a good job,” he said.

The worst-performing sector in NZ’s market today had been technology, but there was weakness pretty much across the board.

Church management software firm Pushpay Holdings fell 2.3% to $1.25 by the end of the day.

The stock had dropped almost 9% on Monday afternoon thanks to shareholders rejecting a $1.53 billion takeover bid from BGH Capital and Sixth Street. 

Travel expense company Serko was down 4.2% to $2.30 and Vista fell 2.8% to $1.39.

My Food Bag Group had one of the bigger falls of the day, falling 6.1% to 23 cents. The stock has fallen by more than 42% in the past year.

Car dealer Turners Automotive Group was down 0.9% to $3.45. The car dealer announced an earnings upgrade earlier in the week.

Ebos Group was up 1.1% to $45.75 while Fisher & Paykel Healthcare edged down 0.7% to $25.90.

Channel Infrastructure rose 2.1% to $1.44.

Today, the NZ dollar was trading at 61.08 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, edging down slightly from 61.10 cents at the same time yesterday.

Tags: Market Close

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