Kiwi sharemarket falls in first day of trading for 2025 - market close

Shares in Sylvia Park mall owner Kiwi Property Group rose after BlackRock reduced its stake. Photo / NZ Herald

The New Zealand sharemarket had a weak start to the year with the benchmark S&P/NZX 50 falling in light trading.

The index closed down 0.33% at 13,067.83, a drop of 42.91 points on trading of 21.78 million shares worth $93.47 million. There were 52 decliners and 90 gainers on the main board.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said the market was weak after a slightly weaker United States market overnight.

“The volume isn’t very high and so the difference between today and the last day of last year is more ups than downs today, and so we’ve seen a bit of reversion.”

Solly said some of the stocks that had a strong 2024 had given back a bit of that performance today.

“We’re seeing the market down on weakness from things like Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Auckland Airport, Infratil and Mainfreight.

“There’s just a bit of profit taking there.”

Shares in Fisher & Paykel fell 1.04% or 40c to $38, while Auckland Airport was down 1.95% or 17c to $8.53. Infratil declined 1.87% or 23.5c to $12.365 and Mainfreight ended the day a touch lower, dropping 1c to $73.49.

Solly said people were taking a more cautious wait-and-see approach.

Long-term bond yields, the 10-year government bond yields, had been tracking higher off the back of question marks around what the incoming US President Donald Trump might do.

Solly expected the market to continue to be quiet next week with many people still away on holiday but there could be updates from some retail companies in late January which will reveal how the Christmas shopping period went for them.

Retail spending data showed while Boxing Day had been strong, activity was weaker in the lead-up to Christmas.

Some property stocks had a bit of a bounce and BlackRock had sold some of its shares in Kiwi Property Group, reducing its stake from 5.334% to 4.981%.

Kiwi Property shares rose 1.11% or 1c to 91c, Precinct Properties was up 2.97% or 3.5c to $1.215 and Argosy Property climbed 1.5% or 1.5c to $1.015.

One area Solly was keeping an eye on was the Chinese sharemarket which had a weak day on Thursday. Investors were hoping for more stimulus to come.

“We need the Chinese economy to be at least stabilising for some of our exporters. It’s probably had the weakest start [to the year] for some time. And so there’s a bit of weariness about that.”

Blis Technologies, Sky Network Television and Pacific Edge saw the biggest percentage jumps in their share prices. Blis rose 6.67% or 0.001c to 1.6c, Sky was up 5.77% or 15c to 2.75 and Pacific Edge climbed 5.6% or 0.007c to 13.2c.

General Capital, Promisia Healthcare and Eroad saw the biggest percentage declines. Eroad was down 5.31% or 6c to $1.07.

Wall Street stocks opened 2025 on a tepid note falling modestly as markets await a heavier news flow later in January.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.4% at 42,392.27.

The broad-based S&P 500 dipped 0.2% to 5868.55, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also declined 0.2% to 19,280.79.

- additional reporting AFP