Shares dip as kiwi strengthens

Outdoor clothing firm Kathmandu dropped 6.6 per cent to $2.85 yesterday. Photo / Natalie Slade

Shares dip as kiwi strengthens Kathmandu leads fall on investor concern about stronger dollar

New Zealand shares fell, led by Kathmandu, on concern a stronger dollar reduces the value of the outdoor retailer's overseas sales. New Zealand Oil & Gas fell as the price of crude oil extended its slide.

The NZX 50 index fell 21.50 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 5502.07. Within the index, 30 stocks fell, 16 rose and four were unchanged. Turnover was $190 million.

The New Zealand dollar jumped against the greenback and Australian dollar after Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler signalled future interest rate rises, even while lowering his projections for the 90-day bank bill rate and economic growth.

"One of the key things today was the strength of the New Zealand exchange rate, including the kiwi-aussie cross rate," said Matthew Goodson, managing director at Salt Funds Management. "That's part of it, part of it has also been the whole Australasian retail space has been under considerable pressure."

Overnight, markets on Wall St and in Europe fell with oil prices after Opec downgraded its forecast for 2015 global demand to the lowest level in 12 years. Asian markets followed suit, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropping 1.1 per cent, Japan's Nikkei 225 Index declining 1.2 per cent and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index down 0.6 per cent in afternoon trading.

Kathmandu dropped 6.6 per cent to $2.85. Trade Me Group slipped 4.1 per cent to $3.49.

NZ Oil & Gas, the country's only petrol producer, fell 1.5 per cent to 64c. OceanaGold fell 3.3 per cent to $2.35.

NZX was unchanged at $1.16 after it said it would establish a new board committee to oversee the way New Zealand's financial markets operator manages conflicts.

Xero, the cloud-based accounting software firm, fell 1.3 per cent to $15.99 and Spark, formerly Telecom, rose 1 per cent to $3.17.

Meridian Energy was the best performer on the day, gaining 2.9 per cent to $1.80.

On the New Zealand Alternative Index, GeoOp rose 6 per cent to 53c after the small business app developer widened its first-half loss to $2.7 million from $1.6 million.