Solly said the market was having a "healthy pullback" and had absorbed "a couple of capital raisings" with the Macquarie-managed funds selldown of Oceania Healthcare and shortfall bookbuild of Steel & Tube Holdings this week. Oceania was unchanged at $1.13 and Steel & Tube gained 2.5 per cent today.
Tourism Holdings led the market lower, falling 4.3 per cent to $5.60, giving up yesterday's gains when the rental campervan operator was the best performer on the bourse.
Restaurant Brands New Zealand fell 2.2 per cent to $7.57, while a2 Milk declined 2.2 per cent to $11.62 and Kathmandu Holdings decreased 1.9 per cent to $3.10.
Sky Network Television dropped 1.9 per cent to $2.12 after it was removed from S&P/ASX 300 index, effective from September 24. Sky also shed rights to a dividend payment yesterday.
Among other firms to shed dividend rights yesterday, Air New Zealand fell 1.6 per cent to $3.16, Trade Me slipped 0.6 per cent to $4.93, Heartland Bank rose 0.6 per cent to $1.68, and Vector decreased 0.6 per cent to $3.42.
Ryman Healthcare gained 3 per cent to $13.70, the biggest gain on the benchmark index today. Synlait Milk rose 2 per cent to $13 and NZX increased 0.9 per cent to $1.07.
Among blue-chip stocks, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rose 0.7 per cent to $14.90, Spark New Zealand increased 0.4 per cent to $3.90, and Auckland International Airport decreased 0.3 per cent to $6.86. Fletcher Building was unchanged at $6.20, as was Meridian Energy at $3.22.
Orion Health Group was unchanged at $1.08 after independent adviser KordaMentha recommended shareholders back a proposal to carve up the company and return capital through a share buyback. The estimated buyback was reduced to $1.16-to-$1.26 per share due to uncertainty over the final wash-up.
Liquidators for former NZX-listed software developer Wynyard Group today said shareholders may get a "very small" distribution and asked them to update their contact details.