by BusinessDesk
The benchmark S&P/NZX 50 Index ended the three-day week down 0.2% as it fell 10.63 points, or 0.1%, to 11,748.48 today. Across the main board, 50 stocks fell and 71 rose, with 19.1 million shares changing hands on a turnover of $53.4m.
“The market’s driving in a fairly subdued start to the new year after a pretty blistering end in the last couple of months,” said Greg Smith, head of retail at Devon Funds Management.
“Volumes are still pretty low this week but will probably pick up next week as they normally do.”
Cinema software company Vista Group International accounted for the day’s biggest volume with 2.9m shares changing hands, almost all in a single trade at $1.60. That was a discount to the $1.66 market price and the stock rose 0.6% to $1.67.
Vista was one of three companies to trade on volumes of more than 1m shares, with Air NZ another as it rose 0.8% to 65 cents with 1.3m shares changing hands, and Goodman Property Trust falling 1.3% to $2.23 with 1.2m units traded.
Tech stocks have been under pressure globally with the Nasdaq Composite falling for a fifth session on Thursday in the US, its longest losing streak since October 2022 as investors ponder when the US Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates ahead of an upcoming jobs report.
Locally, tech stocks were mixed with Eroad advancing 1% to 99 cents, Gentrack falling 2% to $6.48, PaySauce declining 2.1% to 23.5 cents, Rakon unchanged at $1.25, Scott Technology slipping 1.5% to $3.40 and Serko falling 0.5% to $4.03.
Retailers
Kathmandu retail chain operator KMD Holdings led the benchmark index lower, falling 2.6% to 75 cents, while fellow retailer Briscoe Group declined 1.9% to $4.56, clothing chain Hallenstein Glasson dropped 0.6% to $5.26. But fast-food operator Restaurant Brands was unchanged at $3.85 and Warehouse Group was also unchanged at $1.57.
Dairy companies were generally stronger with Synlait Milk among the strongest performers on the day, up 3.2% to 97 cents. The processor has been beaten up in recent months over its dispute with customer a2 Milk, which was unchanged at $4.41. Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund units rose 0.6% to $3.49.
Scales rose 0.4% to $3.42 after an adjustment for shedding rights to its 4.25 cents per share interim dividend, to be paid on Jan 18.
Among other primary-sector linked companies, Delegat Group rose 3.9% to $6.90, NZ King Salmon Investments increased 2% to 25 cents, Sanford rose 1% to $4.14, and PGG Wrightson was unchanged at $3.37.
NZX was unchanged at $1.07 after releasing its December monthly operating update, showing another decline in the volume and value of equities trading. Through the course of 2023, the number of trades fell 22.6% to 9m while the value of trading shrank 9.7% to $33.8 billion.
Australia’s ASX monthly update showed the number of trades fell 9% to 181.6m in 2023, with a 10% decline in the value traded at A$659.92b.
Among blue-chip stocks, Auckland International Airport was unchanged at $8.40, ANZ Group rose 0.6% to $27.58, Contact Energy advanced 0.4% to $8.04, Fletcher Building increased 0.2% to $4.82, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare declined 0.5% to $23.88, Meridian Energy fell 0.6% to $5.555, Mainfreight edged up 0.1% to $69.85, Port of Tauranga climbed 0.4% to $5.52, and Spark rose 0.3% to $5.155.
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