NZX sharemarket flat, up 0.02%
The New Zealand sharemarket finished flat after a sharp late fall as investors eagerly awaited a further interest rate cut in the United States.
Monday, December 8th 2025, 6:18PM
by BusinessDesk
After making steady gains throughout the day, the S&P/NZX 50 Index dipped from 13,516.19 in the last hour of trading and closed at 13,486.32, up 2.3 points or 0.02%.
There were 62 gainers and 81 decliners on the main board with 32.2 million shares worth $120.5m changing hands.
'The impact will live on'
Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said the market has baked in a 25-basis point reduction in the cash rate by the US Federal Reserve (to a range of 3.5-4%) on Thursday morning NZ time.
“In fact, this week is about central bank moves,” he said. “The Bank of Japan is likely to increase its rate, and this will affect Japanese investors offshore.
“It seems the Reserve Bank of Australia will keep its rate on hold, and this has implications for large New Zealand businesses as growth and activity slows in the Australian market,” Solly said.
ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said economic growth in NZ was expected to hit an above annual trend pace of 2.5% or more over the next year as better cash flows start to leak out of people’s wallets.
“The main thing fuelling the recovery will be the low level of interest rates,” he said. “Even though the Reserve Bank has stopped cutting interest rates now, in our view, the impact will live on. The average mortgage rate only really started to fall rapidly from the middle of this year.”
Tuffley said it is now more than halfway through its likely fall from peak to trough, but that means there is still a substantial portion of NZ home borrowers who stand to benefit further.
There are already signs of a greater ability and willingness to spend. In the September quarter, consumers went nuts in electrical and electronics stores. Not only that, they were busily buying up cars to rush themselves around to all the sales, he said.
Overall card spending, on a seasonally adjusted three-month average, is up 3.9% compared to the same time last year.
Local stocks
Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was up 25c to $38.19; Fletcher Building increased 8c or 2.2% to $3.7; Westpac added 55c to $43.76; Skellerup collected 11c or 2.1% to $5.36; and Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund gained 15c or 1.91% to $8.
Solly said an aggressive strain of H3N2 was increasing the rate of flu in the Northern Hemisphere season, and there’s the potential for increased hospitalisation and use of Fisher and Paykel’s respiratory products.
Vital Healthcare Property Trust rose 13c or 7.45% to $2.01 after being added to the global real estate FTSE EPRA Nareit Index, and passive investment funds tracking the index were buying up.
Elsewhere in the property sector, Stride was up 4.5c or 3.27% to $1.42, and Investore was down 3c or 2.46% to $1.19.
Ebos Group decreased 41c to $27.69; Contact Energy eased 11c to $9.28; Gentrack was down 20c or 2.13% to $9.20; and Eroad declined 4.5c or 3.46% to $1.25.
Sky TV fell 28c or 7.98% to $3.23 over concerns that it may lose the HBO streaming content should the NZ$125 billion Netflix takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery gain regulatory approval.
Netflix has agreed to buy the Warner Bros. studios and streaming business in a cash-and-stock deal, and the transaction will occur after Warner Bros. spins off its cable networks, such as CNN and TNT, into a separate, listed company, with completion targeted in the third quarter of next year.
Solly said there’s now a question mark over whether Sky TV will be able to source HBO content for its Neon streaming platform as more product is sold direct to consumers.
“It does appear that Sky’s contract with Warner Bros. is not up for review until 2027,” he said.
Cinema management software company Vista Group, down 7c or 2.57% to $2.65, may also be affected by the Netflix deal. Solly said movies could be shown in cinemas for a shorter period before going to the streaming platform.
Tourism Holdings, up 1c to $2.60, told the market it was closing its recreational vehicle manufacturing factory in Brisbane on Dec 19 and switching all production to Action Manufacturing in Hamilton.
It means 110 frontline and support roles will be cut in Australia. Tourism Holdings said the NZ production will immediately capture the cost advantage opportunities and maintain strong overhead leverage despite expected lower overall manufacturing volumes across Australasia.
| « Fisher and Paykel Healthcare drives NZ stocks to weaker finish |
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