Market close: Sharemarket looking tired after volatile year

Contact Energy fell 27c or 3.26 per cent to $8.02. Photo / 123RF

After a pretty hectic - and at times volatile - year, the New Zealand sharemarket went into a slumber with very few significant price movements across the board.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index slipped for the second day running, falling 67.95 points or 0.53 per cent to 12,767.17. The index has now fallen 1.18 per cent in two days. Is a mini correction taking place?

There were 45 gainers and 88 decliners over the whole market with volume reaching 80 million shares worth $222.22 million in a late surge of trading, which prompted some turnaround in prices, particularly Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, Meridian Energy, Ebos, and Briscoe Group.

Greg Smith, head of research with Fat Prophets, said the market was looking a little tired. "It is in a lull period awaiting some fresh developments.

"The vaccine roll-out is underway but will there be an aversion to taking it and no-one gets herd mentality? We are still waiting for the US economic stimulus package, and tension with China is on the rise, though New Zealand hasn't been dragged into that," Smith said.

"Some people were expecting a pre-Christmas transtasman travel bubble, but that hasn't happened. The latest gross domestic product figures on Thursday will show a strong bounce and does this mean that the Reserve Bank will lower interest rates further? The rhetoric of negative interest rates has cooled lately and New Zealand bond rates are creeping up."

The latest GDP figures are expected to show growth in the national economy of 11-13 per cent for the three months ending September compared with the June quarter – spurred by the hot housing market and increased consumer spending.

The NZ dollar fell slightly, trading in a range of 70.69c-70.93c against the American greenback.

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare staged a rebound during the day, rising to $32.50 but it was hit by the late fall on the market and finished at $32.06, down 1c on trade worth $32.5m. The other market leader a2 Milk was up 14c to $14.20 on trade worth $13.5m.

After a strong rise the day before, Contact Energy went the other way, falling 27c or 3.26 per cent to $8.02; Chorus was down 12c to $7.68; Ebos Group lost 49c to $26.15; Synlait decreased 15c or 2.68 per cent to $5.45; new listing Harmoney declined 11c or 3.67 per cent to $2.89; and Infratil was down 8c to $7.10.

After making strong moves during the day, Meridian finally closed with a gain of 7c to $6.60 and bulk retailer Briscoe finished at $5.07, up 12c or 2.42 per cent.

Kiwifruit grower and packer Seeka said the A$26.5m ($28.13m) sale and leaseback of its Australian orchards, totalling 100ha, is now completed and its share price rose 10c or 2.35 per cent to $4.35.

Pushpay Holdings went into a trading halt while its co-founder Chris Heaslip and executive director Chris Fowler sell a total of 54.6m shares, reducing their holdings from 4 per cent to 0.2 per cent, and 2.4 per cent to 1.2 per cent respectively. The software company is completing a bookbuild of $95.7m at $1.75 a share.

Pushpay last traded at $1.89, and reaffirmed its latest operating earnings (edbitdaf) forecast of US$54m-$58m ($76.3-$82m). Smith said Pushpay has been in a great position in the US church sector enabling parishioners to donate electronically, and its share price has risen strongly.

"May be they are near a term peak for the stock," he said. "This is not the first major sale of shares from company executives, and it is not a good look."

Argosy Property has settled its insurance claim with NZI and QBE in relation to the Kaikoura earthquake for $23.5m, and its share price moved 1.5c to $1.56. Stride Property Group's share purchase plan for $2.14 a unit has closed oversubscribed at $50m, and its share price increased 1c to $2.20.