Sharemarket falls, Air NZ descends amid strong oil prices

Air New Zealand dropped 1.7 per cent to $2.89. Photo / 123RF

New Zealand shares were mixed as Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell on the stronger Kiwi dollar while property stocks rebounded from earlier selling.

The S&P/NZX50 Index fell 25 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 8,272.67. Within the index, 26 stocks rose, 18 fell, and six were unchanged. Turnover was $102 million.

"The Kiwi dollar has been going up, so currency-dependent companies are a bit weaker today - stocks like Fisher & Paykel Healthcare," said Craig Stent, executive director and head of equities at Harbour Asset Management. "Liquidity is very quiet still, there is not much activity to be honest."

Fisher & Paykel fell 1.7 per cent to $13.16.

Ryman Healthcare led the index lower, down 3.5 per cent to $10.27, with Trustpower falling 2.2 per cent to $5.81.

Air New Zealand dropped 1.7 per cent to $2.89. Stent said the stock had been falling due to continued strength in oil prices and expectations the company may find business a bit tougher due to increased costs.

Property companies, which have declined recently, rebounded somewhat today. Kiwi Property Group gained 1.8 per cent to $1.39, Property for Industries gained 0.6 per cent to $1.665, and Argosy Property rose 0.5 per cent to $1.075.

"Growth globally is still pretty strong, the bond market has been selling off so interest rates are going up and that affects the attractiveness of the property sector and other bond-sensitive companies," Stent said.

"The NZ market has probably under-performed in the first month of this year relative to Australia, because we are a bond-sensitive market. The sector has been under pressure for the past couple of days and has bounced today, although not materially."

New Zealand Refining dropped 0.8 per cent to $2.62. The country's only refinery operator lifted processing fee income 19 per cent in 2017 as it enjoyed wider margins in the year, helping offset a lower volume during the pipeline outage in September.

Fletcher Building fell 1.7 per cent to $7.58, while NZX dropped 0.9 per cent to $1.13. The New Zealand stock exchange found Fletcher Building did not breach continuous disclosure rules in relation to two forecast earnings downgrades last year.