Summerset Group dropped 4 percent to $4.60, Scales Corp fell 2.6 percent to $3.40 and Trustpower declined 1.8 percent to $4.36.
Units in Fonterra Shareholders Fund dipped 0.5 percent to $5.93. Fonterra Cooperative Group is expected to lift its farmgate milk price payout to farmers after a further gain in global dairy auction prices overnight.
Fonterra hiked its milk price forecast last month to $6 per kilogram of milk solids for the current season, compared with $3.90/kgMS last season, and analysts in a BusinessDesk survey expect it will raise the price further as dairy prices continue to lift on the GlobalDairyTrade auction platform. Analysts are now expecting the payout to be between $6 and $6.50/kgMS.
Tower was the best performer, up 4.1 percent to 77 cents. The stock has rise 4.8 percent since November 29, when the insurer said it will separate its liabilities and receivables from the Canterbury earthquakes into a separate 'bad bank' structure and "aggressively pursue" recoveries from the EQC and reinsurer Peak Re that amount to about $101 million. It's down 61.1 percent this year, dragged lower by investor concerns over the long tail of earthquake costs.
Sky Network Television gained 2 percent to $4.67, while Vital Healthcare Property Trust rose 1.3 percent to $2.015.
On the Unlisted market, Zespri Group was unchanged at $3.20. The kiwifruit exporter plans to start construction next year on a $42.8 million head office to create a hub for the expanding kiwifruit industry. The 3-storey complex designed by architects Warren & Mahoney will be built on Zespri's current site in Mount Maunganui, with work scheduled to start in the first quarter of next year and slated for completion by the end of 2018, the company said in a statement. Its current 1970s brick building will eventually be demolished and replaced with parkland.