NZX50 falls for third day as Asian markets kick back into life
Australian inflation keeps RBA rate hike in play.
Wednesday, June 24th 2026, 7:08PM
by Paul McBeth
New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 index fell for a third session in a broadly stronger day across Asia, with South Korea’s Kospi recovering from Tuesday’s rout as investors tuned into the artificial intelligence trade turn their eye to Micron Technology’s upcoming result.
Meridian Energy was the biggest drag on the local bourse, with power companies on both sides of the Tasman broadly weaker as oil prices continued to ease since the US and Iran pursue a lasting ceasefire, while Spark New Zealand hit a new 15-year low as the Dow Jones Industrial Average prepares to drop Verizon Communications for Google-parent Alphabet.
Meanwhile, a mixed inflation reading from Australia’s Bureau of Statistics kept expectations for another rate hike across the Tasman intact, widening the gap with declining New Zealand government bond yields.
And Eroad shareholders backed the current board with the proxy votes at today’s contested annual meeting, while KMD Brands prepares to consolidate its increasingly large number of shares on issue to get out of penny stock status.
Odd one out
The NZX50 fell 35.11 points, or 0.3% to 13,400.66, with 24 stocks declining, 20 gaining and six unchanged. The S&P/NZX 20 index futures contract for September was untraded, while the NZX20 decreased 0.3% to 7,577.55.
Turnover across the main board was $149.9 million, with Auckland International Airport accounting for $16.4 million as it rose 0.5% to $8.40.
Stock markets across Asia were broadly stronger, clawing back some of the tech-driven losses on Tuesday, with the Kospi climbing 3.1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gaining 0.4% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index up 0.2%. WiseTech Global led the ASX200 higher, surging 14%, while Xero jumped 8.9%.
Australian stocks pared earlier gains after inflation figures gave a mixed reading, with headline consumer prices index rising 4% in May from a year earlier, a cooler pace than expected, while the trimmed mean outcome was a touch above forecasts.
“Even with oil prices off their highs, and other commodity prices easing to a lesser extent, we expect further pass-through from still elevated fuel and commodity costs over coming months,” Westpac economists Neha Sharma and Sian Fenner said in a note. “This is likely to keep inflation uncomfortably high for the RBA which will be concerned that high inflation is becoming embedded in domestic wage and price setting behaviour.”
The kiwi dollar traded at 81.86 Australian cent at 6pm in Auckland from 81.59 cents yesterday, while the yield on New Zealand’s 10-year government bond fell 4 basis points to 4.39%, widening the gap between the 4.78% yield for its Australian equivalent. The kiwi fell to 56.57 US cents from 56.93 cents yesterday.
Energy companies were among the biggest decliners on both sides of the Tasman as Brent crude oil futures fell 0.9% to US$76.38 a barrel as more tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Meridian was the biggest drag on the NZX50, falling 2.5% to $5.85, while lines company Vector declined 2.2% to $4.86, Contact Energy slipped 0.8% to $9.89 and Mercury NZ slipped 0.6% to $6.85.
Genesis Energy gained 0.4% to $2.61 after amending its gas supply agreement at the Kupe site for another three years.
Oceania Healthcare posted the biggest decline on the NZX50, falling 2.6% to 76 cents.
A setting sun
Spark was the most heavily traded stock on the day with a volume of almost 4.5 million shares, falling 2.5% to a 15-year low $1.775. Australian telco Telstra was also weaker with the sector coming under growing scrutiny from the impact of low orbit satellites, and S&P Global today said Alphabet would replace Verizon in the blue-chip Dow index.
SkyCity Entertainment Group posted the biggest gain on the benchmark index, up 1.8% at 56.5 cents, while Westpac Banking Corp advanced 1.5% to $43.82 and Fletcher Building rose 1.5% to $3.39.
Scales Corp rose 0.6%, or 4 cents, to $6.34, even as it shed rights to an upcoming dividend payment of 12.5 cents per share.
KMD Brands was unchanged at 7.9 cents after appointing respected director John Strowger to its board from July, replacing former long-serving chair David Kirk. The retailer said it would undertake a one-for-25 share consolidation, reducing its issued stock to almost 72 million from the current 1.8 billion outstanding shares.
Outside the benchmark index, trading of Winton Land was halted at $1.52, pending a material announcement on the property developer’s leadership. Chair and chief executive Chris Meehan took the company public in 2021 and owns 55% of the firm. Escrow restrictions on the bulk of that stake lifted in February.
Eroad slipped 0.5% to $1.02 after holding a contested annual meeting, where its biggest shareholder Ampfield Management sought to appoint three new directors and oust executive chair John Scott and board member Sara Gifford. Before the meeting start, Eroad said almost two third of the 60% of shares voted ahead of the meeting supported the board. The final results will be published on Thursday.
And AoFrio gained 2.8% to 7.3 cents after saying it raised $4.4 million from a rights offering to accelerate its push into US and European markets
Paul is a staff writer for Good Returns based in Wellington.
| « NZX50 dips as heavyweights F&P Healthcare, Auckland airport decline |
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