Kiwi stocks down amid regional slide

Sky Network Television shares fell 2.2 per cent to $4.88. Photo / Sarah Ivey

New Zealand shares dropped, following regional markets lower, with Xero and Summerset Group Holdings declining while Air New Zealand and Mainfreight gained.

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 16.78 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 7,107.45. Within the index, 24 stocks fell, 15 rose and 11 were unchanged. Turnover was $136.3 million.

Asian markets followed Wall Street's drop overnight after the US earnings season began with disappointing results.

In afternoon trading, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 1.1 per cent, Japan's Nikkei 225 had dropped 0.9 per cent and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.4 per cent.

"The whole of Asia's trading lower on what was probably a weak start to earnings season in the States which has made markets a little bit nervous today right across Asia, and we're one of those," said Peter McIntyre, investment adviser at Craigs Investment Partners.

Xero led the index lower, down 2.8 per cent to $18.17, while Summerset Group Holdings dropped 2.4 per cent to $4.84 and Sky Network Television fell 2.2 per cent to $4.88.

Meridian Energy was the best performer on the index, up 2.5 per cent to $2.69.

Air New Zealand rose 1.7 per cent to $1.80. Within its monthly operating statistics, the airline today said it had sold its remaining stake in Virgin Australia for A$65.7m in a series of off-market trades.

"The operating stats generally weren't too bad, they're obviously struggling with the transtasman route which of those figures seems to be the standout. Obviously greater competition is impacting on that particular route. All of next year's earnings are pretty much priced in to the share price currently," McIntyre said.

Mainfreight rose 1.1 per cent to $18.20. The transport and logistics group warned investors first-half revenue will be between $1.15 billion and $1.17b, less than was expected, due to falling ocean freight rates hitting billing levels. The company said results from New Zealand had been stronger than expected, while results in Europe, Australia, and Asia had improved.

"New Zealand's strong as far as their performance which shouldn't really come as a surprise to anybody, obviously they've got good GDP numbers coming through and improving results out of Europe and Australia," McIntyre said.

Contact Energy advanced 1.1 per cent to $4.79. The electricity and gas provider is turning its focus to reducing debt after returning $847m to shareholders over the past two years.

"It was pretty uneventful really, first quarter ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) is up and the full-year forecasts are up," McIntyre said. "There were certainly no surprises, no real forecast statement but it focused on continued cost-cutting and profit generation saying the market's pretty mature."

Chorus gained 0.8 per cent to $3.74. The telecommunications network operator announced today it had raised €500 million in medium-term notes at an interest rate of 1.125 per cent per year, set to mature on October 18, 2023.

Outside the benchmark index, Pushpay Holdings dropped 4.4 per cent to $2.15. The mobile payments app developer said it exceeded its guidance for the second quarter of 2017 and was on target to reach its forecast $100m of annualised committed monthly revenue by the end of next year.