My Food Bag had a strong day on the market. Photo / Supplied
New Zealand’s share market investors seem to have spent Monday mulling last week’s data as there was little on the company news front to drive prices today.
The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 49.3 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 11,800.040.
Turnover on the entire market was a very light $74.9 million, with 50 stocks rising and 75 falling.
Hamilton Hindin Greene’s Grant Davies said it had been a quiet day in the US on Friday, which had bled through into New Zealand’s market on Monday.
GDP data for the March quarter released last week showing NZ was in technical recession is still on investors’ minds and further data also showed the economy was limping.
Also last Wednesday, Stats NZ’s balance of payments data series showed the current account was in deficit to the tune of $33.03 billion in the 12 months ended March 31, down from the $34.94b shortfall at the end of December.
BNZ senior economist Craig Ebert said the size of the external deficit looked to have peaked in 2022 and expected “gradual” moderation over the remainder of 2023, consistent with the economy cooling off.
He said Monday morning’s release of the performance of services index (PSI) out of BNZ and BusinessNZ had shown the services sector had recovered to a “near-normal” level of 53.3 in May.
“This arguably helped calm nerves after the PSI abruptly sagged to 50.1 in April, and after the services component of last week’s first quarter GDP logged a decline of 0.6 per cent.”
There’s not a lot filling out the local data calendar this week, although the Westpac McDermott Miller consumer confidence index is out tomorrow, which will give a snapshot into how NZ consumers are feeling this quarter.
Cinema tech company Vista Group said it was obeying market rules after the NZX regulator asked Vista if it was complying with disclosure obligations, with Vista’s share price rising from $1.33 on May 31 to $1.74 on June 16 – last Friday.
NZ RegCo senior surveillance analyst Mitchell Bradley told the cinema tech firm that Vista’s share price had increased 30.8 per cent in that time and could it explain.
The company said it “continues to comply with its continuous disclosure obligations”.
Vista ended the day down 3 cents, or 1.7 per cent, to $1.71, trading over $2.1m over the day.
Scott Technology, which had a good run on the index last week as well, ended the day flat at $3.10 per share.
Meal-kit company My Food Bag carried on its positive streak from last week and jumped up 12 per cent earlier in the day.
By early evening it was up 1.4c, or 7.5 per cent, to 20c.
“It’s not a huge volume, so could be just one motivated buyer or fund,” Davies told BusinessDesk.
“But obviously long-suffering shareholders will be pleased.”
He added that My Food Bag could be the next in line for a “speeding ticket” from NZ RegCo if the stock continued to jump at such a rate.
Eroad’s 2023 sustainability report came out today, the transport software company reporting its NZ region operation had covered 3,329,012,252km in travel in the 2023 financial year.
Australia had covered 627,463,093m and the United States 5,320,464,853km.
In the report, Eroad described the total distance travelled by its units in the 2023 financial year as “more than the distance from the Sun to Neptune and back”.
The stock was up 2c, or 2.6 per cent, to 80c.
Meridian Energy’s monthly operating report out today showed national hydro storage increased from 121 per cent to 143 per cent.
The gentailer said its May 2023 monthly total inflows were 190 per cent of the historical average and making it the third-highest May inflows on record.
Meridian fell 1c or 0.2 per cent to $5.41, Genesis was flat at $2.70. Contact Energy was flat at $7.83, Mercury was down 3.5c, or 0.6 per cent, to $6.33, and Manawa Energy fell 4c, or 0.9 per cent, to $4.69.
Vector edged down 3c, or 0.8 per cent, to $3.98.
Banks also edged up today. ANZ rose 31c, or 1.2 per cent, to $26.06, while Westpac was up 38c, or 1.7 per cent, to $23.25. Heartland edged down 1c, or 0.6 per cent, to $1.67.
On the currency front, the NZ dollar was trading at 62.20 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, from 62.40 cents on Friday.