Fletchers down 3.6% as NZX excluded from ceasefire rally - Market close

Fletcher Building shares fell 3.57% to $2.97 after the firm held an investor day and shared a trading update with the market. Photo / Getty Images

The New Zealand share market has been excluded from a rally triggered by hopes of cooling tensions between Iran and Israel.

Just after midday on Tuesday, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said there was no ceasefire agreement but that Tehran had “no intention” of continuing its response if Israel stopped its “aggression”.

With just over $111 million of equities traded on the exchange, the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 dipped 0.52% to 12,467.480 points despite rallies in other markets.

At 5pm, the Australian bluechip ASX 200 had gained 0.89%, the Japanese Nikkei 225 was up 1.17%, and the major Hong Kong index, the Hang Seng, was up nearly 2%.

Paul Robertshawe, Octagon’s chief investment officer, said the positive global backdrop had not affected New Zealand markets like its counterparts.

“Most of our large companies are relatively defensive, so we’re not a high-risk market to start with,” he said. “But also, the local economy is perhaps still not as robust as people would hope, so there’s no catalyst for a strong rally currently.”

Gainers and decliners

Across the main board, there were 45 gainers and 49 decliners.

Robertshawe pointed to Fletcher Building, which fell 3.57% to $2.97 after the firm held an investor day and shared a trading update with the market.

Fletchers told investors it expected restructuring and impairment costs to total between $573m and $781m in the year to June 30. It had already announced $251m of significant items related to Iplex Australia pipes and the Tradelink disposal.

Robertshawe said the investor presentation was “fairly comprehensive”, but did outline that the “business is not in great shape”.

“I don’t think there was anything massively negative in the result, but people thinking there was going to be a positive catalyst have probably been told to wait another six to 12 months.”

Helping the index in the other direction was Channel Infrastructure, which rose 2.37% to $2.16.

“If there was any stock that would benefit from Middle East tensions, it’s probably Channel,” said Robertshawe, adding the company could be in line to cash in on government plans to lift domestic oil storage.

“They’re a good candidate to get some of that built at their site. [Iran and Israel tensions] only reinforced the need for that, and potentially even bigger volumes.”

Oil prices suffered one of their steepest single-day falls in five years on Tuesday. Brent crude, the global benchmark, tumbled 7.2% – its sharpest daily decline since August 2022.

The rest

Briscoe Group, which entered the NZX 50 on Monday, fell 5.04% to $5.65 on volumes exceeding $800,000 in value traded.

In an investor note, Forsyth Barr analysts Paul Koraua and Rohan Koreman-Smit downgraded the retailer to underperform from neutral due to the stock’s strong performance in recent weeks.

“Briscoe’s inclusion in the NZX 50 has driven a surge in its valuation – up over +45% in the past two months – to unsustainable levels,” they said.

“Compounding the valuation concerns is the challenging domestic consumer backdrop, which presents some downside risk to our expectations.”

The Warehouse Group, which ceded its place to Briscoe, traded flat at 79 cents.

IkeGPS rebounded after a difficult start to the month, rising 7.32% to 88 cents. The small-cap company is up over 50% for the year to date.