Markets: NZX leads sharemarket down

Sky Network Television rose 2.4 per cent to $2.60. Photo / Sarah Ivey

New Zealand shares dropped, led lower by NZX and Xero after the latter announced it will delist from the local stockmarket in favour of Australia.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 19.33 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 8021.09. Within the index, 27 stocks fell, 19 rose and four were unchanged. Turnover was $167.4 million.

NZX led the index lower, down 2.5 per cent to $1.17.

"Xero delisting means less fees and less trading, and it's a high-profile business and certainly one of the most high-profile shares," said Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners. "It's not the sort of headline the stock exchange wants, to have big companies like that decide to go elsewhere."

Xero itself dropped 1.9 per cent to $33.41. The stock has surged 95 per cent this year, the third-best performance on the S&P/NZX 50 index behind A2 Milk and Synlait Milk.

"The result was reasonably solid. It's made good progress but that was overshadowed by the news it would delist off the NZX completely. It's going to be really disappointing for the local stock exchange," Lister said. "It's been a great story. We want to see more companies coming onto the market not disappearing. It's not the end of the world for investors. They can still buy it on the Australian stock exchange, but it's a loss for the stock exchange."

Synlait Milk fell 2.2 per cent to $6.84. Lister said this was a natural pull-back as the stock had become overheated.

Heartland Bank was the best performer, up 3.2 per cent to $1.95. It plans to raise up to $59 million at $1.70 apiece in a discounted rights offer to shareholders to help fund an expanding loan book.

Sky Network Television rose 2.4 per cent to $2.60 and Arvida Group gained 1.7 per cent to $1.18.

Trade Me dipped 0.2 per cent to $4.32.

Z Energy fell 0.4 per cent to $7.17.

Precinct Properties fell 0.8 per cent to $1.285. It said it would pay a 1.45c per share first-quarter dividend, up 3.6 per cent on a year earlier.

Vital Healthcare rose 0.5 per cent to $2.215.