"Omicron and the earnings season have well and truly arrived, and there's the continuing nervousness over rising interest rates. The Reserve Bank is expected to increase the official cash rate next week," Smith said.
"You also have the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and annual food prices here were 5.9 per cent higher in January – the biggest increase since August 2011. The market is going through quite an important period and investors are braced against how it will all play out.
"It wouldn't take much to see buyers coming back into the market if some values get too low," Smith said.
Contact Energy, up 1c to $8.07, produced a solid half-year result, with revenue unchanged at $1.139 billion and net profit up 71.8 per cent to $134m on the back of strong hydro generation and increased sales to fuel-constrained competitors. Operating earnings (ebitdaf) increased 31 per cent to $322m and Contact is paying an interim dividend of 14c a share on March 30.
Contact indicated Rio Tinto would continue operating the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter beyond 2024, and Smith said this would give Contact further confidence to push ahead with investment in generation.
SkyCity Entertainment was down 11c or 3.65 per cent to $2.90 after reporting an expected loss resulting from the Covid restrictions. The transtasman casino and hotel operator turned from a net profit of $77.9m to a loss of $33.7m on revenue of $289.8m, down 35.6 per cent, for the six months ending December. Operating earnings (ebitda) were $20.4m, down 86 per cent.
Most of the leading stocks were hit for the second day running. Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare fell $1.04 or 3.58 per cent to $28.01; Mainfreight declined 97c to $83.04; EBOS Group was down $1.20 or 3.05 per cent to $38.28; and Freightways decreased 50c or 4 per cent to $12.
Fletcher Building was down 12c or 1.86 per cent to $6.33; Port of Tauranga fell 15c or 2.34 per cent to $6.25; Infratil declined 14c or 1.8 per cent to $7.62; Genesis Energy decreased 7.5c or 2.64 per cent to $2.765; and a2 Milk shed 9c to $5.56, nearing its low of $5.50 set on May 19 last year.
The out-of-favour retirement village sector had a tumultuous day. Summerset Group Holdings fell 49c or 4.08 per cent to $11.53; Ryman Healthcare declined 42c or 4.3 per cent to $9.35; Oceania Healthcare was down 5c or 4.46 per cent to $1.07, but Arvida Group gained 2c to $1.63.
Pushpay Holdings plunged to a new low after falling 5c or 4.85 per cent to 98c. Restaurant Brands was down 29c or 1.93 per cent to $14.71; Heartland Group Holdings fell 10c or 4.08 per cent to $2.35; Sanford lost 19c or 3.88 per cent to $4.71; Tourism Holdings declined 12c or 4.32 per cent to $2.66; and Scales Corporation was down 17c or 3.41 to $4.81.
Air New Zealand fell 5c or 3.13 per cent to $1.55; Comvita declined 13c or 3.68 per cent to $3.40; The Warehouse Group was down 15c or 4.64 per cent to $3.08; Bremworth shed 3c or 4.92 per cent to 58c; and new listing TradeWindow fell 17c or 7.42 per cent to $2.12.
Vista Group was down 3c to $2.09 after telling the market that Australian operator Wallis Cinemas has become its first customer on the Vista Cloud platform.
Westpac Banking Corporation rose $1.16 or 4.74 per cent to $25.62 after completing its A$3.5 billion ($3.76b) buy-back of 167.5m shares, representing 4.6 per cent of the bank's issued capital and improving its capital efficiency.
Other gainers were Napier Port up 6c or 1.98 per cent to $3.09; Hallenstein Glasson collecting 10c to $6.69; Winton Land increasing 5c to $3.50; and South Port New Zealand rising14c or 1.7 per cent to $8.39 on the suggestion the Tiwai Point smelter at Bluff will remain open.
