NZ stocks end the week on a positive note - Market close

Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down 23c to $37.60 on trade worth $28.23 million.

The New Zealand sharemarket ended the week with a positive 0.5% rise but the threat of Trump tariffs again reared its head, affecting Fisher and Paykel Healthcare.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index bounced back in the afternoon and closed at 12,995.01, up 66.63 points or 0.52% after reaching a morning low of 12,906.03.

The index declined more than 0.2% for the week and has now fallen nearly 1% for the year.

Volumes were healthy with 32.32 million shares worth $143.82 million changing hands.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager with Harbour Asset Management, said it was a better day after a volatile week and all eyes were on US tariff announcements.

President Donald Trump said he would follow through with a 25% tariff on imported goods from Mexico and Canada on February 1. But he hadn’t yet made a decision on whether oil from those countries would be included.

Trump said the move was aimed at addressing the large number of undocumented migrants and the fentanyl that comes across US borders, as well as trade deficits with its neighbours. He was also planning new tariffs on China but did not give details.

Solly said if the tariffs are implemented, then the cost of Fisher and Paykel Healthcare’s products into the US will increase – “by how much we don’t know, and the company has suggested it will look at changing the manufacturing mix and where it goes to”.

The product from New Zealand could go to the US and manufactured goods from Mexico could go elsewhere, Solly said. “Tariffs have weighed on Fisher and Paykel in the last week or so.”

Market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was down 23c to $37.60 on trade worth $28.23m.

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence decreased four points to 96 in January, with falls across most questions in the survey.

ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner said the proportion of households thinking it’s a good time to buy a major household item is well off its lows and likely still trending higher.

But this month’s fall is a reminder the environment for retailers is likely to remain patchy and challenging for some time yet.

“Household inflation expectations have been very stable recently, but recent increases in petrol prices do highlight the risk that they will start to rise again. The economy is typically a slow ship to turn,” she said.

Ebos Group reached a 19-month high after gaining 80c or 2.04% to $40; Meridian Energy was up 7c to $5.90; a2 Milk added 12c or 1.9% to $6.44; Gentrack collected 20c to $12.71; and Infratil increased 26c or 2.37% to $11.21.

Solly said the Microsoft result showed there was still significant demand for data centres after the company said it can’t get enough data centre capacity. Infratil (with a 48% shareholding in CDC Data Centres) recovered as people questioned what the DeepSeek disruption would mean.

Skellerup was up 10c or 2% to $5.09; Port of Tauranga gained 13c or 2.04% to $6.50; Vista Group rose 14c or 4.52% to $3.24 as US movie box office numbers increase; Vector collected 9c or 2.34% to $3.94; and Mainfreight added 63c to $72.

AFT Pharmaceuticals increased 7c or 2.55% to $2.82; NZME gained 2c or 1.89% to $1.08; Air New Zealand added 1c to 63c; Santana Minerals was up 2.5c or 4.67% to 56c; and Green Cross Health improved 2c or 2.63% to 78c.

Vulcan Steel gained 15c or 1.93% to $7.94, and General Capital continued the climb, increasing 4c or 14.29% to 32c after sitting at 18.5c on January 9.

Sky TV declined 10c or 3.45% to $2.80; Smartpay was down 1.5c or 2.83% to 51.5c and Pacific Edge decreased 0.003c or 4.84% to 5.9c.

Colonial Motor Co, unchanged at $6.30, told the market it expects gross profit to fall about 20% for the six months ending December compared with the previous corresponding period.

Colonial said the decline was not as significant as expected, and while December was a strong trading month, it is too early to comment on whether that was an aberration or a sign of some level of market recovery.