NZ shares mixed as global investors spooked by Amazon

Pushpay chief executive Chris Heaslip. Photo / File

New Zealand shares were mixed as weaker than expected earnings from global tech giants spooked investors already wary of over-valued equity markets.

The S&P/NZX 50 index edged up 0.17 of a point, or 0.002 per cent, to 8,568.40, snapping a five-day decline. Within the index, 21 stocks gained, 20 fell and nine were unchanged. Turnover was $121.7 million.

The local bourse teetered between positive and negative territory after results from Amazon and Google missed expectations, casting a pall across Asian equity markets. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was down 0.5 per cent in afternoon trading, while China's Shanghai Composite index fell 0.6 per cent.

Matt Goodson, managing director at Salt Funds Management, said intraday volatility was very high through the session.

"There's not much bid tone at all and buyers are being very nervous," Goodson said.

Global financial markets have been contending with a return of heightened volatility in recent months as investors fret over the pace of global growth and weigh up the prospect of higher interest rates.

That's seen the NZX 50 fall from a record in September, although it's yet to cross the 10 per cent threshold indicating a technical correction. The local bourse is the only major stock index in Asia-Pacific that's still in positive territory for the year-to-date, up 2 per cent.

Goodson said a number of primarily larger companies had become very expensive during that run.

"Really we're seeing something of an unwind of the greatest excesses of it over the last three or four months," he said.

Spark New Zealand slipped 0.1 per cent to $3.83 on 4.7 million shares traded, well ahead of its 2.7 million 90-day average. Kathmandu rose 0.4 per cent to $2.63 on 14 times its average volume with 2.8 million shares traded.

Among other stocks with more than one million shares traded, Argosy Property was unchanged at $1.09, SkyCity Entertainment Group fell 1.9 per cent to $3.70, Ryman Healthcare was unchanged at $11.77, Air New Zealand rose 1.5 per cent to $2.655, A2 Milk Co fell 0.5 per cent to $9.86, Z Energy gained 1.2 per cent to $5.92 and Mercury NZ increased 1.4 per cent to $3.375.

Pushpay led the market higher, up 5.2 per cent to $3.66 from a two-month low. Fletcher Building increased 1.9 per cent to $5.82, rising from a six-month low.

Heartland Bank gained 1.3 per cent to $1.54. Trading in the stock is now halted until November 1 when it restructures into Heartland Group, enabling its Australian reverse mortgage business to operate outside the umbrella, and prudential supervision, of the licensed bank.

Tourism Holdings fell 3 per cent to $4.90 on slightly higher than average volume; Synlait Milk dropped 2.9 per cent to $8.41 on lighter volumes than usual.

Outside the benchmark index, the tightly-held trucking firm TIL Logistics gained 1.3 per cent to $1.60 after predicting earnings growth on an expanding economy and recent acquisitions. Mainfreight, whose transport and logistics operations span the globe, increased 0.3 per cent to $28.07.

New Zealand Oil & Gas rose 5.2 per cent to 61 cents after reporting gas indications at the Kohatukai-1 onshore exploration well south-east of New Plymouth. After the close of trading, NZOG said it reached a conditional agreement to farm into a permit off Western Australian held by its ASX-listed subsidiary Cue Energy.

New Zealand Refining fell 1.3 per cent to $2.33 on modest volumes after appointing James Miller as an independent director.

Among firms facing takeover bids, Restaurant Brands New Zealand gained 0.1 per cent to $8.51, SLI Systems increased 1.7 per cent to 60 cents, and Tilt Renewables was unchanged at $2.28.