New Zealand joined the ‘Sell America’ sentiment as the benchmark stock index sank 2.3%, with Mainfreight dented by souring views on US freight and Infratil rocked by talk of Amazon pulling back its artificial intelligence spending.
Meanwhile, domestic mergers and acquisitions haven’t been turned off by the turbulent global markets, with Singapore’s City Developments Ltd upping its offer for Millennium & Copthorne Hotels New Zealand – admittedly still well short of the net tangible asset value – and Northland Regional Council giving the all-clear to press ahead with a scheme to buy Northport-shareholder Marsden Maritime Holdings.
And the kiwi dollar pushed to new five-month highs, trading at 60.20 US cents at 5pm in Auckland from 60.04 cents at 7am and 59.64 cents last week.
Wall Street cast a pall over Asian markets as US President Donald Trump doubled down on his criticism of Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell in pushing for lower interest rates, causing investors to ponder the ongoing independence of the world’s biggest central bank.
Down to business
“We had a pretty weak lead given the headlines around Trump,” said Matt Goodson, managing director at Salt Funds Management. “Australia appeared to tough that out on its safe-haven appeal, but our market came under pressure from that weak lead.”
The S&P/NZX 50 index fell 282.3 points to 11,836.69 in a widespread selloff, with 39 stocks declining, eight gaining and three unchanged on the benchmark index. Turnover was $105.4 million across the main board.
Stock markets were mixed across Asia, with Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index edging up 0.03 % in late trading and Singapore’s Straits Times Index advancing 1.1%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.1% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.1%.
Mainfreight led the NZX50 lower, falling 5.2% to $55 – its lowest level since November 2020 – joining a slump among US transport firms, while Infratil dropped 4.6% to $10.14, joining a sell-off for data centre developers amid speculation Amazon might be paring back its expansion plans.
Foreign markets
The stronger kiwi dollar weighed on exporters – which typically benefit from a weaker currency – with Fisher & Paykel healthcare declining 3% to $32.50, Scott Technology sliding 6.3% to $1.80, Rakon falling 4.4% to 43 cents and Sanford slipping 3.2% to $4.58.
Spark New Zealand was the most heavily traded stock on a volume of 4.5 million shares, falling 4.3% to $2.01.
General insurer Tower slipped 0.7% to $1.37 after upgrading its annual earnings guidance on lower claims expenses, while noting softer gross written premium growth.
Summerset Group Holdings declined 1.3% to $11.15, reiterating its projected construction programme for the year at today’s annual meeting, while also noting that the current underfunding of agedcare meant it’s considering no longer accepting referrals from the public health system.
What goes down...
KMD Brands posted the biggest gain on the benchmark index, up 1.5% at 34.5 cents.
Meanwhile, Port of Tauranga rose 0.5% after partner Northland Regional Council voted to progress the consortium bid to buy out minority shareholders of Marsden Maritime Holdings at $5.60 a share. Marsden Maritime was unchanged at $5.20.
And Millennium & Copthorne surged 27% to $2.74 after controlling shareholder CDL upped its takeover bid to buy out its minority investors to $2.80 a share from $2.25. The hotel operator’s independent directors recommended investors ignore the lower offer after an independent report put the value at $4.40-to-$5 and are reviewing Singaporean company's best and last offer.
Would-be gold miners Santana Minerals and New Talisman Gold Mines both gained as the gold price pushed to new highs. Santana rose 4.1% to 63.5 cents and New Talisman increased 6%, or 0.5 of a cent, to 8.8 cents.
Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Curious News.