Investors sell up in bid to cement gains

Contact Energy shares were 2.6 per cent down yesterday to close at $5.29.

Contact Energy and Mighty River Power shares lead drop in NZX 50 Index as F&P Healthcare slips from record.

New Zealand shares fell yesterday, as Contact Energy and Mighty River Power were sold by investors looking to crystallise recent gains. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare slipped from a record high.

The NZX 50 Index fell 27 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 5819.97. Within the index, 30 stocks fell, 14 rose and six were unchanged. Turnover was $119 million.

The benchmark index has gained 5 per cent since the start of the year, pushed to record levels as investors search for income paying equities in the face of a globally low interest rate environment.

Traders sold yield paying stocks as they looked to pocket recent gains in the face of Greece defaulting on its debt and exiting the eurozone and uncertainty about when the United States Federal Reserve will lift interest rates.

Contact dropped 2.6 per cent to $5.29. Mighty River Power fell 2 per cent to $2.73.

Meridian Energy declined 1.6 per cent to $2.18. Genesis Energy slipped 1.1 per cent to $1.87.

"Given the good run, people are looking for a reason to sell, not that it has to happen, but it's what you get when the market has had a good run," said Robert Garden, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.

"People are probably more conscious of banking a little bit of profit at the moment, just with the uncertainty that is around."

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare declined 0.3 per cent to $7.09, from Friday's fresh record of $7.11. The breathing apparatus manufacturer and exporter benefits from a weaker Kiwi dollar as it translates overseas earnings back into the local currency.

Fletcher Building, New Zealand's largest listed company, fell 0.8 per cent to $8.46. Spark New Zealand slipped 0.2 per cent to $2.76. Ryman Healthcare, the country's largest public retirement village operator, was unchanged at $8.10.

Outside the benchmark index, Abano Healthcare Group was unchanged at $7.40 after it appointed Richard Keys to take over as head of the specialist medical investment firm, when Alan Clarke leaves later in the year.

On the New Zealand Alternative Index, Cooks Global Foods, which is taking the Esquires coffee chain outside New Zealand and Australia, was unchanged at 12c after it narrowed its annual loss to $3.99 million, from a year earlier loss of $5.1 million while expanding its global footprint.