The local market was one of the few to decline across Asia Pacific as European Central Bank stimulus triggered a global rally in equity markets. Davies said the NZX50 is still one of the best-performing markets this year. It's up about 24 per cent since the start of 2019.
Blue-chip stocks were among those to decline today, with Mercury NZ down 2.6 per cent at $5.16, A2 Milk falling 1.8 per cent to $14.03, Port of Tauranga declining 1.5 per cent to $6.39 and Mainfreight down 1.3 per cent at $39.30.
Contact Energy decreased 0.9 per cent to $8.60 after its monthly operating metrics showed lower hydro generation in August, albeit at a higher wholesale generation price. Its mass market and gas sales were higher in the month from a year earlier.
Vista Group International led the market lower, down 3 per cent at $3.87 on a volume of 90,000 shares, less than a fifth of its 486,000 average.
Spark New Zealand decreased 0.1 per cent to $4.495 on a volume of 3.2 million shares, Auckland International Airport fell 1.1 per cent to $9.20 on a volume of 1.9 million shares, and Air New Zealand decreased 0.2 per cent to $2.705 with 1.5 million shares changing hands.
Of other companies trading on volumes of more than a million shares, Meridian Energy rose 2 per cent to $5.19, SkyCity Entertainment Group was up 0.7 per cent at $4.09, Fletcher Building advanced 0.6 per cent to $5.13 and Stride Property Group was unchanged at $2.32.
Outside the benchmark index, Comvita rose 3.2 per cent to $2.59 after saying it has disestablished two senior positions, while Rubicon increased 0.6 per cent to 18.2 cents after appointing ArborGen head Andrew Baum as its new chief executive.