NZ market flat as Christmas period kicks off

Today, the S&P/NZX 50 index was flat at 0.01%, to 11,603.66. Turnover was $394.6 million due to extended trading.

Forsyth Barr investment adviser Damian Foster said NZ’s market had edged down today mostly in response to hawkish comments that the US Federal Reserve made yesterday after it hiked rates by 50 basis points.

“But generally speaking, it's been a reasonably uneventful day as we sort of start to get into that Christmas period where trading starts to slow down a little bit,” he told BusinessDesk.

Fletcher Buildings made a splash earlier on in the day after it revealed it had to add another $150m to its provisions for the cost of building the NZ International Convention Centre (NZICC) as well as the associated hotel in Auckland.