NZ stocks take Wall Street lead to end down 1%
The New Zealand sharemarket took its lead from a weaker Wall Street to end lower on Friday.
Friday, November 14th 2025, 6:49PM
by BusinessDesk
The S&P/NZX 50 Index closed down 133.41 points or 0.98% at 13,464.46, with 34.3 million shares worth $130.2m trading.
There were 106 falls and 34 rises on the main board.
Most other markets in the Asia-Pacific region were also softer after United States stocks had their worst day in a month, largely due to selling in technology stocks.
The Dow Jones Index fell by 1.65%, the S&P 500 by 1.66% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped by 2.29%.
Wall Street lead
Craigs Investment Partners investment director Mark Lister said the local market had taken its lead from Wall Street after early optimism surrounding the end of the 43-day US Government shutdown gradually wore off.
The US closure has left investors with little economic data to form views on the state of the US economy, he said.
“Now, no one really feels like they know where the US economy is at with any certainty, and the US Federal Reserve is in a bit of a bind heading into its December meeting,” Lister said.
In addition, the ongoing debate on whether AI-related stocks had run too hard, too fast, was affecting sentiment.
Mainfreight gives up some gains
Transport and logistics firm Mainfreight gave up some of its post-result gains, ending 92c or 1.34% down at $67.58, but was still up 16% over the week after the market responded to the company's positive earnings outlook.
Brokers Forsyth Barr upgraded Mainfreight to “outperform” from “neutral” based on the company’s positive outlook.
“The first half was characterised by margin pressure across most operations, but this eased over the final two months as revenue growth accelerated,” the broker said in a note.
“This underlying business improvement is likely to continue into the second half, driven predominantly by accelerating Australasian activity reflecting new business wins and cyclical green shoots.”
Infratil slips back
Intratil, which also reported this week, dropped 19c to $11.78.
“Of the two big heavyweights to report this week, Mainfreight was the one that everyone liked, but Infratil didn’t get the same response, falling 4% over the week,” Lister said.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, the market’s biggest stock, finished 39c down at $37.69.
Meridian Energy, which holds an investor day on Thursday, fell 5c to $5.83.
Elsewhere, transport technology company Eroad lost 13c, or 8%, to $1.50, while cinema software firm Vista dropped 12c to $2.58.
Comvita setback
Among the smaller stocks, honey exporter Comvita closed 6.5c down at 53c after an 80c-a-share scheme of arrangement from Florenz failed to garner enough support from shareholders.
The loss-making Comvita said it had notified its banking syndicate to request their further support to provide time to recapitalise the business.
Looking ahead, a slew of annual and first-half results are due next week, starting with Sanford (full year) and Serko (half year) on Tuesday.
There are also several annual meetings, among them for Precinct, KMD Brands, and a2 Milk.
| « NZX edges lower as Infratil, profit-taking weigh | NZ sharemarket starts new week up 0.2% » |
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