NZ sharemarket steadies amid US sell-off and tariff concerns

Tourism Holdings was down 8c or 4.62% to $1.65 after telling the market there has been a slowdown in international bookings for the upcoming peak season in the US. Photo / Supplied

The New Zealand sharemarket fared better than most in a week that brought a rout on Wall Street after the introduction of sweeping United States tariffs.

The day after the worst Wall Street sell-down in five years, the S&P/NZX 50 Index had a sharp fall at the opening and then traded steadily to close at 12,225.28, down 113.29 points or 0.92%.

There were 27.75 million share transactions worth $105.94 million. The index declined 0.5% for the week and is now down 6.8% for the year.

Mark Lister, investment director with Craigs Investment Partners, said the local market avoided the bulk of the volatility – “in that context we’ve done pretty good. The tariffs we face are more modest, and many of the stocks on our market are domestic-focused”.

Lister said the big questions now are whether “we will see the tariff situation get worse or will negotiations take place (to reduce the tariffs) and soften the blow? The tariffs will definitely impact growth, and do they push the US into a recession?”

“It was an ugly week for financial markets,” he said.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 went back into a correction after falling 4.84% to 5396.52 points – its biggest one-day loss since the Covid period of June 2020. The benchmark index is now 12% below its record close in February.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 1679 points or 3.98% to 40,5456.93, and Nasdaq Composite declined 1050 points or 5.97% to 16,550.6 – its biggest single-day fall since March 2020.

Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index had fallen 2.46% to 7666.5 points at 5.45pm NZ time.

At home, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 62c or 1.76% to $34.58; Gentrack declined 76c or 6.74% to $10.52; Skellerup shed 31c or 6.62% to $4.37; Port of Tauranga decreased 16c or 2.39% to $6.53; a2 Milk eased 8c to $8.54; and Summerset was down 40c or 3.51% to $11.

Freightways decreased 24c or 2.23% to $10.50; Hallenstein Glasson was down 16c or 1.95% to $8.04; The Warehouse fell 3c or 3.41%to 85c; KMD Brands shed 2c or 5.48% to 34.5c; and Serko was down 10c or 2.63% to $3.70.

Infratil declined 25c or 2.5% to a 15-month low of $9.75. The utilities investor told the market that its 48.17% shareholding in CDC Data Centres was now valued at A$6.06-$7.2 billion ($6.60-$7.85b), with a mid-point of A$6.6b, up from A$4.48-$5.38b (mid-point of A$4.92b) at the end of December.

Other decliners were Scales Corp down 9c or 2.1% to $4.20; Vulcan Steel falling 28c or 3.15% to $8.60; Manawa Energy decreasing 12c or 2.49% to $4.70; Fletcher Building shedding 7c or 2.15% to $3.18; and Air New Zealand down 2c or 3.2% to 60.5c.

Property for Industry declined 6c or 2.78% to $2.10; Kiwi Property shed 2.5c or 2.81% to 86.5c; Turners Automotive decreased 11c or 1.88% to $5.75; Vista Group shed 12c or 3.6% to $3.56; and NZME was down 4c or 3.39% to $1.14.

Tourism Holdings was down 8c or 4.62% to $1.65 after telling the market there’s been a slowdown in international bookings for the upcoming peak season in the US, as well as a decline in consumer sentiment for US inbound travel. Typically, about 50% of its recreational vehicle rentals in the US are from domestic bookings.

Sanford, down 15c or 3% to $4.85, doesn’t expect the US tariffs to have a material effect on performance in the 2025 financial year, saying the impact depends on who pays. In the previous year, US sales of $117m made up 20% of the seafood company’s revenue.

Scott Technology, up 13c or 7.43% to $1.88, said the new tariffs are expected to have limited impact on its current financial year. North America is a significant market but much of the revenue is from Canadian customers – with less than 10% of revenue exposed.

Contact Energy gained 12c to $9.20; Mercury was up 13c or 2.26% to $5.88; Mainfreight collected 50c to $62.12; and Comvita improved 2c or 2.82% to 73c.

Cancer diagnostics company Pacific Edge was up 0.006c or 4.62% to 13.6c after increasing its testing numbers in the US. The total volume in the fourth quarter was 7577, up 6.8% from the previous quarter.

The laboratory throughput in the US for the quarter was 6490 tests, up 11.7%. Total volumes for the year ending March were down 11.5% to 28,894 tests compared with the previous year, mainly reflecting the reduction in the sales force.

Pacific Edge said the inclusion of the Cxbladder test in the American Urological Association’s standard of care guidelines has changed its sales pitch to clinicians, medical policy makers and healthcare payers.